Watch as Kelowna helped Thrill the World

It's hard to think of a more iconic Halloween track than 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson.

And Saturday afternoon, the dead slowly rose in Stuart Park, as Kelowna joined thousands of others around the globe for Thrill the World.

“[Thrill the World] just started to be a thing and some people spread it from town to town,” Mike Guzzi, event organizer and CEO of Studio 9 School of the Arts, told Kelowna10.

The idea started 15 years ago, and Studio 9 has organized it locally for the past seven.

The dance kicked off at 10 p.m. GMT.

“Whatever city you’re in, you match that,” Guzzi said. “Some people will get midnight; we get it at three in the afternoon.”

People from as far as Nanaimo rolled into Kelowna for the occasion, all donning their best undead makeup.

“It can be as easy as just tear up some old clothes and ‘greying’ up your face or we had people that had cans coming out of the side of their heads,” Guzzi said. He also sported undead inspired makeup.

Numbers are collected from each event and tallied up to find out how many grave-walkers danced along globally.

Studio 9, which is an independent school focused on the arts, taught their students the choreography as part of the curriculum. Thrill the World’s website also teaches the moves.

“The idea is to make it easy for people and to make it fun, just to get out and dance,” Guzzi said. "We’re getting outside, dancing, getting together, communicating, having fun. That’s what the arts are.”