Well, it seems like nobody knows how many people turned out for the Brisbane Zombie Walk for 2011. The number can however be phrased as an algebraic expression:

N = 6 + Z + P

Where:

6 = Valhalla Bifrost staff (Adam, JC, Zanda, Jamie, Dani and Stewart)

Z = number of zombies, and

P = number of photographers

Note that on this occasion number of photographers = number of zombies.

By my count that's about 14 trillion people packed into Wickham Park on a balmy Sunday afternoon, which is surely enough to beat the world record.

That's also 6 billion litres of corn starch and food colouring, 18 tonnes of foundation and eyeliner, 6 cubic kilometres of polyurethane and other sculptables, and at least half a tonne of pro-quality telephoto lenses.

It also seems like nobody knows how much money was collected by sinister paramilitary forces and undead mendicants, but I imagine it was somewhere in the vicinity of one bajillion dollars, all of it donated to the Brain Foundation.

As for our experience, we have more reliable figures: we handed out 1000 Zombie Juice plague patches stickers, 500 herpes sticks lollipops, and lots and lots of free Zombie Juice gameplay at our safe haven of a tent.

But really the day belongs to the inventive undead and their magpie photographers, who packed into Wickham Park until it was full as a boil, and then burst out en masse to march, reckless and militant, against our collective fear of disease, dementia, contagion and death.

A toast! To these antic scarecrows! These bloodied poppets! These effigies of doom! A toast!

Cinema-quality photos from s.RaN's photostream.

Happy-snap photos from our photostream.