For longtime Frozen Dead Guy Day devotees, this past weekend was a test. Could the quirky, weird festival inspired by a cryogenically frozen dead guy maintain its scrappy spirit after its move to Estes Park?
Frozen Dead Guy Days is a beloved twenty-year-old tradition that was first put on in 2002 by the Nederland Area Chamber of Commerce to attract more tourists to the town during its historically slow months. The name was an homage to Bredo Morstoel — known affectionately as Grandpa Bredo — who was the town’s cryogenically frozen resident. Over the years, FDGD became wildly popular, attracting more than 20,000 attendees during the 2022 festival weekend and earning the ire of the town’s government and its residents.
But given its free admission and mounting size and cost, FDGD co-owner Sarah Moseley Martin announced that the 2023 event would be canceled. The next day, she received a text from John Cullen, owner of the historic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, who was interested in buying the festival. Cullen made good on the deal, and partnered with Visit Estes Park to throw the festival from March 17 through March 19 around the Stanley and the Estes Park Events Complex.
Some hard-core FDGD fans grumbled that the festival was selling out, incensed by the previously free event now costing roughly $50 per ticket, and vowed not to attend this new iteration. Even so, the festival sold all 500 tickets for Friday night’s Royal Blue Ball and drew thousands of attendees to its Saturday festivities. Many people purchased day-of tickets, and the line to enter the festival grounds sometimes snaked a quarter-mile down the streets, with people waiting 45 to 60 minutes just to enter. The biggest complaints heard throughout the events were about the corresponding long lines for beer, porta-potties and even the merch stand.
But there was much to entertain people while they waited, with more than ten food stands; an all-day lineup of activities, including the frozen T-shirt contest, a brain-freeze ice cream-eating contest, Newly Dead (a play on the Newlywed Game) and a frostbite fashion show; and three music venues with acts such as the Kyle Hollingsworth Band, Break Science, A-Mac & the Height and Grateful Dead cover band Shakedown Street.
For many longtime participants, the crowds were nothing compared to those of previous years, and everyone we spoke with complimented Estes Park on the organization and professionalism it brought to the proceedings. “You know what? I have to say, I came up here with a bit of an attitude. [But] I love it so much. It’s been the best year yet,” said Kendra Slater, a member of the Denver Hearse Association who brought one of her hearses to the festival. “Look at all the space we have for these [hearses]. We didn’t have a hearse parade this year, but next year I’m sure they’ll make it happen.”
Nederland residents Karen and Kurt Lichfuss agreed. They’re longtime FDGD attendees, and their absolutely killer outfits meant they were stopped every ten feet for a photo opportunity with visitors. “I think they’re rocking it," Karen said. "Absolutely. It’s a great venue; it’s a beautiful location." The Royal Blue Ball (formerly the Blue Ball), held the night before "was out of this world," she added, "because it’s just the atmosphere in the ballroom. The tent has a different vibe, but it was beautiful, and the Polish Ambassadors were amazing — and a lot of people dress up!"
Some balanced appreciation for the new structure and organization with bittersweet, nostalgic memories about the tiny festival-that-could. “This is a lot different, but the spirit’s still here. The energy’s still here,” John Hedgepeth said. Looking back to when the festival was still in Nederland, “there was more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants grit to it," he observed. "There was a bit more of that Ned magic that really made it. The festival that got noticed, that started as just a silly thing twenty-something years ago and turned into a phenomenon that they talk about on The Tonight Show.”
And Hedgepeth would know — he’s been the emcee for the FDGD coffin races for the better part of a decade, and was able to return to that role in Estes Park, along with another longtime emcee, Stephanie Andelman. The coffin races were definitely the star attraction of the festival, with many participants saying that was what they came for. The organizers devoted a large section at the entrance to the coffin race obstacle course, which included a hill for the “corpses” to run up, limbo sticks and a required switcheroo of pallbearers. The atmosphere was less intense competition and more “How ridiculous is this?” The emcees for the event kept up a constant commentary, often heckling and lightheartedly teasing the participants. In one memorable moment, when the “Best in Snow” team’s coffin disintegrated and broke into pieces before it even hit the first obstacle, Hedgepeth joked that the group was being “put down” by its competitors. As a consolation prize, the team ultimately won the prize for "Most Notable Wipeout," which came with free beer.
Chaotic and manic at times, the coffin races were the greatest example of how FDGD has cleaned up. “It used to be much, much more rough around the edges. A bunch of mud, snow, people hucking ice balls at you while you’re running,” said a racer from a former winning team, Feelin’ Nauti. “It was like you’re running over these slushy ice berms, and then you had to do dizzy bat…and then there were hay bales to hurdle as you were running down the course, and then a big stretch of just fucking gross mud.” Even so, he admitted he missed the grim and grit of the Nederland FDGD, and hopes Estes can bring more of that in future years.
A racer from the champion team Rainbros, Luke Trautwein doesn’t miss the grim. “Estes is doing such a great job, super-organized and very family-friendly,” he said. “The coffin race is one of those things where you do it and…at the end I say to myself, 'I will never do this again.' But this is the first year at Estes, so we’re like, ‘We've got to do this again!’”
And that was exactly what these organizers wanted to do — encourage good, clean fun and discourage the type of behavior that one participant described as follows: “We’re mostly here to do a bunch of coke and black out, and yeah, we’ll see how that goes.” The event was full of security, and EMTs roamed the event at the ready. However, that partying participant was very much in the minority; when asked toward the end of the night, the EMTs commented that it had been a quiet, slow day with only minor incidents of public intoxication — something that used to be quite common at the Nederland FDGD.
And although Grandpa Bredo was not an attendee this year — the frozen body is still in Nederland — it’s probably just a matter of time. Cullen has met twice with Bredo's grandson, Trygve Bauge, and festival organizers say that negotiations with the family are ongoing, as there is the challenge of safely and legally transporting a cryogenically frozen body from a Tuff Shed in Ned to an ancient icehouse in Estes.
Cullen is willing to go quite far with his enticements to Bredo’s family, however, and perhaps next year Frozen Dead Guy Days will be reunited with its frozen dead guy.