Zombie Fest to rise from the dead

Milton Theatre announced over Labor Day weekend that the annual Zombie Fest will return after the theater previously announced the event had been cancelled.

The event will be held Saturday, Oct. 19, as originally planned, although a location has not been announced. 

JP Lacap, the theater’s marketing director, said while more details need to be worked out, the festival is a go for this year. He said further announcements should be forthcoming in the next two weeks.

The theater announced the return of Zombie Fest Aug. 30. When the event was cancelled Aug. 22, eight organizations stepped forward to host it. Theater officials say the choices have been narrowed down to two locations. Whether those organizations or locations are municipalities other than Milton, theater officials have not said.

For its first five years, Zombie Fest had been held in downtown Milton at the Milton Historical Society lot at Union and Magnolia streets. But flooding problems made it impossible for the lot to support the event this year, so theater officials planned to turn Zombie Fest into a free street festival. 

Theatre Director Fred Munzert said the event ran into limitations imposed by the town, including the location of the stage, and the number of vendors and food trucks. Lacap said the free event would cost $20,000 to put on. In July, town council unanimously voted to allow Zombie Fest to close Union Street from 5 to 10 p.m. and to have four food trucks. Munzert and Lacap said that is half the number of food trucks from the year prior, and vendors were cut out entirely. 

Although they later said after the town’s approvals that they did not think the event would work under those circumstances, the theater pressed on with advertising because Munzert and Lacap said they believed they could make it work.