How to Go
What: 2016 Zombie Ball
Where: Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum, 1763 Hamilton-Cleves Road, Hamilton
When: Oct. 15, 7-11 p.m.
Cost: $15-$125
More info: 513-863-8336 or www.pyramidhill.org.
This weekend marks the second annual Zombie Ball at the Pyramid Sculpture Park & Museum. Jeni Barton, who took the job of director of programming and administration for the museum last year, brought the concept from her previous position on the East Coast.
“We were originally going to call it a zombie prom, but then everyone thought it would be high schoolers,” she said.
The ball actually attracted a lot of young professionals, which was (is) the desired demographic. For three out of the four hours of DJ’d music and dancing (a Top 40 mix that will also include Halloween-themed classics like “Monster Mash,” the “Ghostbusters” theme, and “Thriller”), there will be an open bar for beer and wine. The only cash drink during that time will be a special “zombie” cocktail.
“It’s green and it bubbles because we put pop rocks in it,” Barton said.
Attendees are encourage to dress up as any kind of undead character and be as creative as they can, especially given the zombie photo booth and costume contest.
“Last year, we had a girl with working wings,” Barton said. “She hit a button and they opened. We had a lot of believable zombies with prosthetics, people who dressed up as dead characters from other movies, and one person who wore a shirt that said, ‘Dead.’ We also had a flash mob for ‘Thriller.’”
There will also be a “horror-themed” buffet for when people need a break from the dance floor.
“The caterer last year was really creative,” Barton said. “There was a figure on the table with a chest cavity open with a plate of meatballs. There were devil’s egg eyeballs and a face you could peel meats from. The menu this year hasn’t been finalized yet.”
Additional activities are a haunted hayride that takes groups of 20 through a series of haunted displays and monsters. Groups and romantic couples also have the option of parking at the front gate and taking a hearse, donated by the Ball’s co-sponsor, the Brown Dawson Flick Funeral Home, to the actual pavilion and walking the “blood red carpet.” Barton explained that, with the casket taken out, there’s actually a lot of room inside a hearse, enough to enwrap several passengers into a “party limo” atmosphere.
“There’ll be satin pillows and a few disco balls hung,” she said. “It’s basically a five-minute drive with a few theatrics. For some reason, a lot of people were surprised that they were real hearses,” she added, laughing. “I don’t know what fake hearses would look like.”
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