A zombie family roamed Corry Street in downtown Yellow Springs in the 2016 Zombie Walk. (News archive photo by Isaac Delamatre)
It lives!— Yellow Springs Zombie Walk returns next Saturday
- Published: September 21, 2026
After an eight-year hiatus, shuffling back to town this fall is a familiar fright: the Yellow Springs Zombie Walk is back from the dead.
Equal parts food drive, festival and fundraiser, the revived Zombie Walk is open to all living and undead; it’s set for Saturday, Oct. 3, 3–9 p.m., with activities and live music to be staged on the front lawn of the John Bryan Community Center.
The family-friendly horror comes to a climax at 8:30 p.m., when all zombies will rise and drag their bones on the walkabout through downtown Yellow Springs.
To participate, Zombie Walk organizers ask all would-be revenants to bring a $5 suggested donation and a canned good. Financial proceeds will benefit the Yellow Springs-based Feminist Health Fund, and all shelf-stable food and toiletry donations will go to the village’s food pantry.
Despite all the blood and guts, YS Zombie Walk founder and village native Tobi Reed called the event good, clean fun.
Yellow Springs News archive photo from 2012
“It really brings people together. That’s what it’s all about: being together,” Reed told the News last week. “We get to have fun together and stock the food pantry right before the holidays — making sure people have what they need.”
Featured in this year’s revived Zombie Walk are such classic games as ring toss, an egg-and-spoon race and, of course, the crowd favorite: “find the eyeball in the bucket of slime.”
On the stage at the Bryan Center will be the bloodcurling musical lineup of DOCTOR MEAT, Somnavore, Dracmina, DJ Fatty Lumpkin, Rob Heiliger and Cooley the Curator. In addition to vendors selling Halloween-themed handcrafted goods, there will be a tarot card reader and a friendly Michael Myers running around, ready to pose for a good photo op.
Folks are encouraged to come as they are and get “zombified” by an on-site face painter, or dress up beforehand and BYOB (bring your own blood).
As Reed recounted, the YS Zombie Walk has humble roots.
With the help of friends and local business owners, Reed launched the first walk in 2009. It initially drew about 60 undead and just as many donations for the food pantry — though, at the time, Reed said the food pantry was apprehensive about accepting food from a bunch of zombies. She and some co-conspirators had to drop them off under the cover of night.
Yellow Springs News archive photo from 2012
In the early years, Reed’s aim was to build an occasion that brought some more action to the Dayton Street side of downtown Yellow Springs — the less favored section of the business district, in her view. Drawing from her years as a worker at Dayton Street staples past and present, including Carol’s Kitchen, the Import House, the Gulch and her mother’s Gretchen and Company, Reed thought, “What better way to reanimate that side of town than to flood it with hordes of zombies?”
True to the plot, more undead appeared with each passing year. YS Zombie Walks attracted more folks, bands and vendors — which was good news for the recipients of the suggested donations. Past walks have benefitted the likes of YS Home, Inc.; the John Bryan Youth Center; and even a diabetic villager who needed help affording a service dog.
There have been weddings, vow renewals and choreographed dances — each year, the train of zombies walking around town grew longer and longer.
But like any decaying corpse, the event began to swell and morph into something different.
“It became a lot,” Reed said. “I had support in a lot of areas, but there were also quite a few negative opinions and feelings.”
She continued: “The last couple of years we did it, it became more of a party — a free event where people would just show up — instead of a fundraiser and donation drive, which has always been its main purpose. So, it got skewed a little bit, I think. Then, I got tired and decided to bury it.”
The moment she did, Reed missed it.
Yellow Springs News archive photo from 2012
“This was my baby!” she exclaimed. “It really hurt me not to do it for these years. The Zombie Walk is such a special event that brings people together. We need that more than ever.”
So, galvanized by nostalgia and hometown love, and now equipped with a mental list of “to-dos” and “not-to-dos” — “We are going to be respectful zombies,” she said — Reed is ready to bring the walk back from the dead.
Evidently, so are some villagers. The Gulch held a fundraiser last week to help Reed recoup organizing costs — such as insurance, the lawn reservation and T-shirts — which brought in a few hundred dollars. As Reed is continuing to cover expenses from her own pocket, she welcomes additional sponsors to help out — those wishing to do so should email her at yszwalk@gmail.com ahead of the event.
Additionally, Reed seeks volunteer face-painters.
“Hey, zombies need love too,” she said.
The 2026 Yellow Springs Zombie Walk will be Saturday, Oct. 3, 3-9 p.m., with the festival headquartered on the John Bryan Community Center’s front lawn at 100 Dayton St. The downtown walk will take place at 8:30 p.m.
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