Frozen Dead Guy Days, Colorado, USA
March 8 - March 10
Over the first full weekend in March, Nederland in Colorado hosts one of the quirkiest festivals in the US, if not the world. Frozen Dead Guy Days features frozen festivities with dozens of live bands and such offbeat icy escapades as polar plunging in fancy dress costume and ice turkey bowling.
Bredo Morstol and the Origins of Frozen Dead Guy Days
Marking its 18th incarnation in 2019, Frozen Dead Guy Days promises to be something of an ice-cool spectacle. Almost certainly unique in their origins, the frosty festivities pay homage to the suspendedly animated Bredo Morstol, who resides in a shed on dry ice above the town. Morstol’s after-life and times, or rather the very fact of his continuing cryogenically prolonged existence, is the basis for this frost fest. His story weaves together psychics, a journey from Norway to California and Colorado, deportation, eviction, local by-law infringements, new legal precedents – the “grandfather clause”, and a 30-year-so-far wait for medical science to provide successful reanimation.
Throngs of the adventurous, the curious, or the just plain macabre regularly turn up to enjoy the atmosphere, live music, local crafts, festive food and drink, and to remember the man who, albeit unwittingly, started all this deep-frozen daftness, Grandpa Bredo.
Frozen Dead Guy Days Schedule
Kicking off with Grandpa’s Blue Ball, featuring three live bands and the coronation of the Ice Queen & Grandpa Costume Contest winners, Frozen Dead Guy Days highlights include: live music showcases in three giant heated tents – ReAnimate Yourself, Not Yet Dead in Ned, Bacon, Bourbon & Brews; screenings of Grandpa’s Still in the Tuff Shed – a documentary detailing the full history of Bredo Morstol and his after-death adventures; a Frozen Dead Guy lookalike competition and costumed polar plunging for those brave or barking mad enough to go for a dip at this time of year in Colorado – which usually means breaking the ice first.
As if that weren’t enough, the discerning ice-lover can also enjoy the slow-mo parade of hearses, coffin racing, frozen t-shirt contests, icy turkey bowling, frozen salmon tossing, human foosball – something akin to giant table football –, brain freeze contests, frozen fix-a-flat competitions, ice and snow sculpting, frozen dead poet slam, the Newly Dead Game, a silent disco, and work by many local artists and crafters, as well as a range of festival-appropriate food and beverage options.
If you think that there’s nothing new under the sun, be a little bolder, take a step into the Colorado unknown and check out what’s under the ice. Head over to Ned, as locals affectionately call their town, and embrace the cold, the crazy and the downright weird. Celebrate the end of winter, the coming of spring and above all, the not-quite-dead-yet infamy of Grandpa Bredo Morstol, in what his grandson, Trygve Bauge, the man responsible for starting this bizarre snowball rolling, calls Cryonics’ first Mardi Gras.
Frozen Dead Guy Days Ice Breaker Party
For those closer at hand or able to take off at the drop of a woolly bobble hat, there’s even a launch party on 23 February, hosted by Los Cheesies at Großen Bart Brewery, Unit A, 1025 Delaware Ave, Longmont, Colorado 80501.
Los Cheesies is a high energy party band performing music from rock to hip hop and reggae to blues, as well as ‘cheesiefied’ cover songs from the 60s to 90s.
The coolest party in town will give you the chance to get a feel for the forthcoming freeztivities by joining in the tapping of Großen Bart Brewery’s infamous Bredos’ Brew and getting some early practice in for the frozen turkey bowling and frozen t-shirt competitions.
Planning a trip to Colorado, try these Colorado Holidays: Top Quirky Spots.
When is Frozen Dead Guy Days 2019
March 8-10, 2019
Where is Frozen Dead Guy Days
Guercio Park Town Square parking lot, and 1st Street in Nederland, Colorado, USA. Coordinates: 39°57′42″N 105°30′39″W
Accommodation in Colorado
If you are looking for accommodation for the festival or elsewhere in Colorado, try our Hotel Booking Portal.
Frozen Dead Guys not your scene, try the Great American Beer Festival in Denver instead.
More information on Frozen Dead Guy Days
For further details, click here. Cover photo, c. Emma Pion-Berlin
Article dedicated to Laura J Snook.
