Fun From Beyond – I’m Dead Serious
Each March, the town of Nederland, Colorado plays host to one of the most bizarre cultural festivals around- the Frozen Dead Guy Days!
2012 marked the 10-year anniversary of the event, which has a particularly odd origin. It all started in 1989 when Norwegian citizen Trygve Bauge brought the corpse of his recently deceased grandfather, Bredo Morstøl, to the United States on ice! If traveling with a corpse wasn’t strange enough, Bauge and his family kept the body cryogenically frozen behind their unfinished house. With Bauge deported due to an expired visa and his mother’s (and grandfather’s) home being evicted, the family had to come clean about the dead body they were keeping. The city cited municipal codes making it illegal to keep “any part of a person, body or carcass…which is not alive upon any property,” but public interest and growing press coverage forced the frozen Bredo to be grandfathered in without penalty!
Now, each year, the city honors the memory and history of “The Iceman” with a city-wide festival. From a cold water polar plunge to frozen turkey bowling to coffin racing to dead guy tours– this wacky festival honors death with a celebration of life. Looking for some live music and a little brain freeze? This is the place for you!
Paint your face a deathly shade of gray, and make the journey to Nederland. You can take a bus from Denver to Boulder, then transfer to the N Bus to Nederland, to get there via public transit. Of course, you could just hop in a hearse and drive yourself there in style!
2012 marked the 10-year anniversary of the event, which has a particularly odd origin. It all started in 1989 when Norwegian citizen Trygve Bauge brought the corpse of his recently deceased grandfather, Bredo Morstøl, to the United States on ice! If traveling with a corpse wasn’t strange enough, Bauge and his family kept the body cryogenically frozen behind their unfinished house. With Bauge deported due to an expired visa and his mother’s (and grandfather’s) home being evicted, the family had to come clean about the dead body they were keeping. The city cited municipal codes making it illegal to keep “any part of a person, body or carcass…which is not alive upon any property,” but public interest and growing press coverage forced the frozen Bredo to be grandfathered in without penalty!
Now, each year, the city honors the memory and history of “The Iceman” with a city-wide festival. From a cold water polar plunge to frozen turkey bowling to coffin racing to dead guy tours– this wacky festival honors death with a celebration of life. Looking for some live music and a little brain freeze? This is the place for you!
Paint your face a deathly shade of gray, and make the journey to Nederland. You can take a bus from Denver to Boulder, then transfer to the N Bus to Nederland, to get there via public transit. Of course, you could just hop in a hearse and drive yourself there in style!
- Airport Codes: DEN
- Cost: Individual events vary
- Dangers: Cold, Stray coffins
- Dates: March 2 – 4th, 2012
- Language: English
- Weather: Cold
| Month | March |
| Categories | Art & Performance, North America, Races & Competitions, Weird & Quirky |
| Address | Nederland, Colorado |
| Website | http://frozendeadguydays.org/ |
| Video | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Om1KWxyK-w |
| Dates | Early March every year |