Frozen Dead Guys

Coffin races are all part of Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland. Photo courtesy Frozen Dead Guy Days

Officials from the Visit Estes Park Board of Directors have announced that they will be reviving Frozen Dead Guy Days (FDGD), aiming to bring it to Estes Parks in 2023. The news comes just a few weeks since festival organizers announced that the event, that has drawn more than 20,000 people in the past, could not happen in its hometown of Nederland next year. 

According to festival organizers, the event could not happen in Nederland due to several factors, including operational hurdles, security issues, and a lack of partnership with the Town of Nederland. 

"We want to rescue this festival and we want to professionalize it," said Kara Franker, CEO of Visit Estes Park at a board meeting on Thursday. 

"This is the first time publicly we’re talking about this huge collaboration that we are undertaking between Visit Estes Park and The Stanley. This is not stealing this festival, this famous festival from Nederland. This is rescuing it," she said. 

FDGD was created to celebrate the strange, but true story of a man, Bredo Morstel, whose body was discovered cryogenically frozen in a Nederland shed in 1995. The festival is meant to honor him. 

"We want to keep the fun to it, and the wacky, and the weird. Like think about how Burning Man was on the beach and had to move to the desert. You kind of graduate as the brand becomes exciting and big. Imagine St. Patrick's Day weekend in March, and what that can mean for the town if we have 20,000 folks that come to celebrate Frozen Dead Guy," Franker said. 

Franker also shared that the board is working to secure a musical headliner for the festival as well. During the meeting, she estimated that the event could bring five to six million dollars in sales tax revenue to the town.

"The big thing about this, is that nobody is trying to make money off of this. This isn't the Stanley trying to make money or Visit Estes Park trying to make money, this is the two organizations coming together to put on a great, fun, funky festival and to rescue it, but also for the proceeds to go to workforce housing and childcare." 

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