Most grandfathers leave behind a pocket watch, a modest inheritance, or perhaps a recipe for a killer casserole. Bredo Morstøl left behind a corpse packed in dry ice and a legacy that involves grown adults racing coffins through an obstacle course while thousands of people day-drink in his honor.
Frozen Dead Guy Days returns to Estes Park next weekend, from March 27-29, bringing back the coffin races, live music, icy stunts and delightfully off-kilter energy that turned one of Colorado’s strangest origin stories into a full-scale spring festival.
The main event unfolds March 28, at the Estes Park Events Complex, 1125 Rooftop Way, Estes Park, where thousands are expected to gather for a day of music, DJs, games and the general understanding that traditional black mourning attire has, for the weekend, given way to blue face paint and spandex.
The festival, which began in Nederland in 2002 and relocated to Estes Park in 2023, still revolves around the unusual afterlife of Morstøl. A Norwegian mountain pioneer, he passed away in 1989, but his grandson, Trygve Bauge, had him cryogenically preserved in hopes that future technology might one day resuscitate him. After a series of bizarre legal battles in Nederland involving deportation and local health codes, the town eventually embraced the “Frozen Dead Guy,” and thus, a festival was born…