Thrillseekers had ‘fangtastic fun’ taking part in the Zombie Crawl in Newquay on Saturday.

More than 1,500 children and families dressed as zombies, ghosts, ghouls, witches and vampires to parade through the town centre.

The terrifyingly terrific turnout saw people line the streets to witness the most frightening but fun event of the year.

The 2023 Spooky Newquay Zombie Crawl experience began with multiple rolling workshops for families to enjoy.  

These included freaky face painting for all the family, Zombie outfit making sessions, pop-up scary moooves dance classes, scary storytelling, wound making workshops and ongoing entertainment in preparation for the creepy crawl.  

All of these sessions were free-of-charge for everyone to attend and were situated in BID businesses and member locations right throughout the town. 

Over 1,500 affected Zombies and dressed-to-impress kids and adults, including lifeguards, pirates and pop stars, gathered to join the horror show at 3pm, working their way through the wicked wasteland of Newquay’s main street. 

As with the previous instalments of the Zombie Crawl, the trail will ended at a number of establishments in the east of the town where after-party ‘Spooky Discos’ kicked off before those over 18 headed into some of the towns bars and nightclubs to see the spirited night out.  

The week-long half term + Halloween combo that was Spooky Newquay, which culminated in the Zombie Crawl, has been deemed a frightful success following tens of thousands of visitors and locals alike heading for the resort in the last week.

Across the half term week Love Newquay, part of Newquay BID, Visit Newquay, town officials and businesses alike invited families to come to the resort for a ghoulishly good time. 

Mix NQY, a food, drink and lifestyle bar and cafe in the centre of Newquay collaborated with Party Play Cornwall to hunt washed-up skeletons and other scaries along the Newquay shoreline on Thursday.

Newquay Zoo invited people of all ages to hunt out the attraction’s creepiest creatures.

Throughout the week, Visit Newquay, encouraged people to help find and run out Zombies all over town with a free Halloween Zombie Trail. 

The Trenance area of the town, which includes Newquay Zoo, Newquay Leisure World and the Trenance Heritage Cottages and Trenance Garden Café also organised its own Halloween trail for all the family, alongside a Halloween-themed events programme.

The Headland Hotel returned to its former situation as the home of ‘The Witches.’ 

Lots of creative businesses got spooktacular with decorations and costumes and local, regional, national and international media coverage ensued with BBC Breakfast proclaiming Newquay one of the places in the UK leading the way in utilising the trend for Halloween-related spend to their benefit.

Love Newquay + Newquay BID Manager Mark Warren, who yet again transformed into a Zombie-infected version of late pop star Prince, said: “We’re all on a collective high after not just a frightfully successful Zombie Crawl, but an amazing take-up for our first week-long Spooky Newquay bonanza!  "Across the nation there are more and more crazy Halloween fans and the passion for this whole experience is rising with a phenomenal £1billion being spend on Halloween related retail and experiences this year. 

"And as per the national and international media coverage we received, we’re delighted to be leading this trend from a half term Halloween holiday destination, creating a major multi-gen fun holiday opportunity that gives our BID businesses every opportunity to maximise this seasonal trend and holiday.

 “Yet again, we’ve had families travelling from all of the UK to be here, and some who’ve even flown in from the US.  

“Lots of businesses really got into the ‘spirit’ of the occasion and it was just immense to see locals and visitors alike dressing-up and face painting-up in their spooky creative best and dancing and crawling right along the Newquay streets in one Zombie-infested parade. 

“The whole Spooky Newquay week, with the culmination of the Zombie Crawl, really brought the whole business and local community together at this point of the year. 

"We’re all so grateful for the support of Blystra arts, Hotch Potch, Bounce Dance Academy, Newquay Library, Newquay Town Blystra Lions Club, Newquay Lions Club, Newquay Land Train, Newquay Lighthouse Cinema, Great Western Hotel, Newquay RNLI and all the businesses themselves. 

"We’re already planning how we can hype it all up to even higher Halloween heights for next year!”