Few people are suprised by what they see around Halloween, but if you are driv-ing downtown on 4th Friday, Oct. 22, you might get a little more than you bargained for if Christina Cole and the members of the Feral Art Collective get what they are hoping for.

Cole, a Wilmington-based artist and her husband, Sameul Guin, have put together quite an event for ghouls and goblins to enjoy — a Jazz Funeral and Zombie Walk.

We know, it’s not the usual celebration of Halloween that people expect for downtown, but Cole believes the undead are going to really liven downtown up.

“This event has really snowballed,” said Cole during a recent interview. “We were all talking about the fact that in Fayetteville unless you go to a bar and party, there’s not a lot for adults to do on Hallow-een. So we started talking about ideas for something fun, something different for adults.”

Initially, the idea was to sponsor a Jazz Funeral Cole explained.

“My mom died last December and we didn’t really have a fu-neral,” she explained. “Later we went to New Orleans and saw a Jazz Funeral and thought it was a great idea.”

For those not in the know, a Jazz Funeral is a New Orleans tradition that is rooted in music. Most commonly such musical funerals are done for individuals who are musicians themselves, connected to the music industry, or members of various social aid and pleasure clubs or Carnival krewes who make a point of arranging for such funerals for members. The music starts out somber and then moves on to joy in a celebration of life and death.

“We started talking about hosting a Jazz Funeral here, but culturally a lot of people don’t know what a Jazz Funeral is, but most people know about zombies, so we worked in the Zombie Walk to bring out the fun side and then we are working in the cultural side with the Jazz Funeral,” said Cole. “There’s an interesting parallel between the two of them.”

To make the tie in perfect, the Feral Art Collective tied their event to 4th Friday knowing that downtown would already be full of life.

The event will kick-off at the library where all the zombies will gather. From there, they will shamble over to Maxwell Street where all sorts of may-hem will unfold.

According to Cole, there will be a lot of zombie interaction in and amongst the artisans who will be on hand as part of 4th Friday. There will be break dancing zombies and belly dancing zombies. Members of the collective will be on hand to help you zombie-fy yourself if you didn’t get a chance to do it before you come downtown.

What might be the highlight of the event will be performances of “Thriller” — complete with a cast of zombie dancers. Voice, a singer/performer, will put on one performance of Michael Jack-son’s pop sensation, and the student’s from Leslie’s Dance Studio will put on another.

Once you’ve had your fi ll of “Thriller,” you can make your way over to the Climbing Pace to watch Air Born Aerial Arts’ Aerial Zombies put on a display of aerial acrobatics that is sure to take your breath away.

All of the fun kicks off at 9 p.m., when the zombies meet at the Headquarters Library Fayetteville on Maiden Lane. They will proceed down Burgess Street onto Maxwell St. where they will connect with the Jazz Funeral and proceed down Maxwell in the procession. Please be sure to comply with city laws and keep to sidewalks and obey traffi c rules!

A live brass band led by Donna Grimble will accompany the funeral proces-sion and second line for the Jazz Funeral complete with a hand-carried zombie coffi n procession.

After the downtown events, be sure and make your way over to The Rock Shop where a whole weekend of mayhem is planned during the Zombie Grind.

For more information about those events, visit facebook.com/therockshoplive.For more information about the event and special discounts being offered by downtown merchants, visit www. facebook.com/pages/Fayetteville-Jazz-Funeral-and-Zombie-Walk.