Estes Park and Stanley Hotel will pair up to continue Frozen Dead Guy Days
There is an afterlife for Frozen Dead Guy Days. In a new partnership, Estes Park and the Stanley Hotel will pair up to continue Frozen Dead Guys, which recently was declared dead for this upcoming year in its longtime home in Nederland. It will be held St. Patrick's Day weekend.
Word came out Thursday night in a meeting of the board of Visit Estes Park tonight, CEO Kara Franker shared the news, telling the board, "We want to rescue this festival. We want to professionalize it." The festival ran into trouble with the town of Nederland as it tried to navigate its way back after a break during the pandemic. Ultimately the festival owners and the town could not see eye to eye about continuing in 2023 and it was scrapped.
The festival has hosted more than 20,000 people for its signature events like the coffin races.
"Imagine St. Patrick's Day weekend in March and if we have 20,000 people, in town for the festival. We could fill the hotels during a slower season and ultimately give a boost to workforce housing and child care," said Franker. "This is a super exciting opportunity for us."
The festival is being sold to John Cullen, the owner of the Stanley Hotel. Moving the festival makes sense to Cullen.
"So much like Burning Man started in San Francisco and outgrew it and moved to the desert, we at least now to get to just move on down the road from Nederland," said Cullen. "We're going to keep it Colorado... we're going to keep it weird."
But the task is daunting.
"To put this back to life in a hundred and some days is a real challenge," said Cullen. But Estes Park is already used to a lot of visitors and big festivals.
"This is a town of 8,500 people and has 8 million visitors a year," said Cullen, referring to the rodeo and the Scottish Fest which attract 50,000 and 30,000 people.
Franker also told the board they are working with a promoter to bring in a big musical act. Cullen says the 300 plus acre fairgrounds will be a good spot.
Frozen Dead Guy Days originated more than 20 years ago in Nederland in the mid-90s after the town became internationally known for a controversy over the storage of a frozen dead guy in a shed.
Norwegian Trygve Bauge brought the corpse of his grandfather, Bredo Morstøl, to the United States hoping the start a cryogenics lab. As to whether the body, which remains in a shed in Nederland and is currently maintained with bi-weekly servicing with dry ice will be moved is still an open question.
"It's under discussion," said Cullen. "Let's just get the festival started now we'll talk about the body later."
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Is it the nail in the coffin of Frozen Dead Guy Days?
If you're interested in the history of Frozen Dead Guy Days and how the body of Bredo Morstøl, is tended in a shed on a mountainside, you'll find it in Alan Gionet's special report on Nederland: