Frozen Dead Guy Days

Celebration on ice, with morbid twist
Joey Bunch
The Denver Post

NEDERLAND — Frozen Dead Guy Days heats up to its finale today with events including frozen beach volleyball and the awards ceremony.

The festival is a three-day celebration of "Grandpa" Bredo Morstoel, the resident who is not quite here but not quite gone. The frozen dead man stays in a crate of dry ice just outside town until science can figure out how to wake him up. Each year, more than 50,000 of the most irreverent people show up in Nederland to be cool with Grandpa.

"It's the most unique festival you'll ever go to," said Julie Ward of Orlando, Fla., the daughter of town administrator Jim Stevens. "Where else can you possibly go where they have anything like this?"

Frozen Dead Guy Days coordinator Teresa Warner said the festival appeals to the oddball in all of us — celebrating the afterlife of a guy on ice.

To get to the festival, take Colorado 119 (Canyon Boulevard in downtown Boulder) 18 miles up into the mountains. RTD is offering bus service from the Boulder Transit Center, with stops at Eldora Mountain Resort, Nederland High School, the Nederland park-n-Ride and at Magnolia Street at Colorado 119. Joey Bunch, The Denver Post