Asbury Park Zombie Walk founder: I don’t want it to die

Zombies aren’t easy to kill.

Asbury Park bar owner John McGillion is attempting to keep the Zombie Walk in Asbury Park. He’s in negotiations with Jason Meehan, the founder of the New Jersey Zombie Walk, held annually in Asbury Park, to stage the walk in the city on Saturday, Oct. 3.

Meehan, who previously said the walk was dead, is selling the rights of the Zombie Walk to McGillion and both parties said a deal should be struck early next week.

Asbury Park loses New Jersey Zombie Walk

“I don’t want to see the event disappear,” Meehan said. “I want it to keep happening and I want to be a part of it. My bottom line is I couldn’t keep doing all the leg work on my own because I have too many things going on in my life.”

Meehan is the head brewer at Demented Brewing Company in Middlesex and he’s a new dad.

McGillion, the owner of the city’s Johnny Mac’s House of Spirits, would take over the event and have Meehan stay on board as a type of Zombie Emeritus, active in the event’s boardwalk staging area.

“Jason will be on the boardwalk doing all the face painting, selling T-shirts, setting up the different booths,” McGillion said. “We’ll be doing the production this year and possibly years to come.”

Meehan announced on social media last month that the Zombie Walk would end this October 3 with a zombie funeral due to the time commitment issues and the costs of staging the event. He began the walk in 2008 with 200 participants and it grew into a Guinness World Record-breaking event with more than 10,000 participants.

It’s part performance art, part bar crawl and part happening.

“I was not prepared for the tidal wave of responses I got,” said Meehan of the posting. “People came at me from all directions: fans on Facebook, the media calling me every couple of hours, emailing me, people calling me with ideas on how to come up with more sponsors, trying to find a way to help. It was overwhelming in a good way but also a bad way because it showed I did not have the time to run it. I don’t make any money from it, I volunteer my time and it’s a four-hour trip for me to Asbury Park. I couldn’t take off from work to spend days driving down to sit in meetings every couple of days.”

The Zombie Walk costs about $20,000 to $30,000 to stage, McGillion said, and the Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce and Madison Marquette, as operators of the boardwalk, would be involved. McGillion would not reveal the purchasing price of the walk.

McGillion, also the owner of Kim Marie’s Eat and Drink Away, has submitted an event application to the city and that should go before the city council on Wednesday, Sept. 23.

It's rock star wedding season in Asbury Park

“I've known John for a few years and he’s very pro Asbury Park and very pro Zombie Walk,” Meehan said.

“The kids love it, the adults love it, it’s all decent people and everybody loves it,” McGillion said.

Don’t be surprised in a few of the undead show up at Johnny Mac’s on Oct. 3

“I think there will be a few zombies there that day,” McGillion said.

Chris Jordan: cjordan@app.com.