Frozen Dead Guy Days: Colorado’s Weirdest Festival Returns in 2027

Quick Facts: Frozen Dead Guy Days 2027

• The 2027 festival runs April 2 through 4 in Estes Park, Colorado, according to dates confirmed directly by festival organizers.

• The festival began in Nederland in 2002 before moving to Estes Park in 2023 after more than two decades in its original mountain town.

• Bredo Morstøl is genuinely still frozen and is now submerged in liquid nitrogen inside the Stanley Hotel’s former ice house.

• The legendary coffin races involve seven-person teams building their own coffins, placing one brave teammate inside, and racing through an obstacle course while wearing costumes that rarely suggest sound athletic judgment.

• Recent festival weekends have included live music, frozen-themed competitions, costume contests, a polar plunge, art, dancing, and enough death-related wordplay to sustain an entire tourism board.

• The Stanley Hotel inspired Stephen King’s novel The Shining, because apparently housing Colorado’s most famous frozen grandfather was not enough of a story for one property.

• The full 2027 schedule and ticket details have not yet been announced, so check the official festival website before booking individual events.

Photo Credit: Frozen Dead Guy Days

The Strange True Story

Bredo Morstøl died from a heart condition in Norway in 1989. His grandson, Trygve Bauge, responded in the traditional way by packing him in dry ice and arranging international transportation.

Bredo was taken to the Trans Time cryonics facility in California, where he spent almost four years submerged in liquid nitrogen. In 1993, he was moved to Nederland, Colorado, where Trygve and Bredo’s daughter, Aud, hoped to establish a cryonics facility of their own. This did not become a sleek research campus. It became something much closer to homemade cryogenics, with Bredo stored inside an insulated shed and kept cold through regular deliveries of dry ice.

The arrangement became considerably harder to maintain when Trygve was deported for overstaying his visa. Aud continued caring for her father, but she was later ordered to leave her unfinished home because it lacked electricity and plumbing.

Worried that Bredo might thaw after she returned to Norway, Aud told a local reporter about the body in the shed. The reporter informed town officials, who suddenly discovered that their municipal responsibilities included deciding what to do about a frozen Norwegian grandfather. Nederland passed an ordinance prohibiting the storage of human remains on private property. Bredo, however, received an exception and was allowed to remain.

He was, quite literally, grandfathered in.

Local caretakers continued packing the shed with dry ice for decades. Bredo became the town’s most famous resident despite being dead, Norwegian, and unable to participate in local elections.

From Nederland to Estes Park

Frozen Dead Guy Days began in Nederland in 2002 as a celebration of the increasingly famous man in the shed. What could have remained an uncomfortable zoning dispute became a full festival with coffin races, costumes, live music, frozen competitions, and thousands of people willing to spend a weekend making jokes about hypothermia.

The festival relocated to Estes Park in 2023 after more than 20 years in Nederland. Bredo moved later that year with his grandson’s permission. A team from the Alcor Life Extension Foundation transferred him to the Stanley Hotel’s old ice house, where he was placed head-first into liquid nitrogen. His new home now includes a museum dedicated to cryonics. As it turns out, Bredo had visited The Stanley decades earlier with Trygve and, driving past the hotel, reportedly told his grandson: "I'm going to come back here."

Forty-some years later, he did. And he's not leaving.

His new home now includes the International Cryonics Museum, the first of its kind in the world, which opened in December 2023 in partnership between The Stanley and Alcor. Visitors can explore the history and science of cryonics, learn about Bredo's story, and yes, take a selfie inside an empty dewar tank next to the one housing him.

The location could hardly be more appropriate. The Stanley Hotel famously helped inspire Stephen King’s The Shining, so visitors can now explore haunted-hotel lore, literary horror, and the science of preserving a dead Norwegian grandfather without leaving the property.

The hotel also offers a separate Frozen Dead Guy Tour centered on Bredo’s story and cryonics. The tour lasts around 40 minutes, and space is limited.

What Actually Happens at the Festival

The festival’s signature event is the coffin race, which takes the basic dignity associated with a funeral procession and launches it through an obstacle course.

Each team builds its own coffin and arrives in costume. Six members carry or push the coffin while a seventh teammate rides inside as the designated corpse. During the race, that person may have to climb out, complete a challenge, and get back inside before the team charges toward the finish line.

Photo Credit: Frozen Dead Guy Days

The official rules encourage homemade construction, so coffins have been assembled from everything from cardboard and pool noodles to more elaborate custom materials. The result is part athletic competition, part school art project, and part reminder that humans will race absolutely anything once someone starts keeping score.

Recent editions have also featured live bands and DJs, frozen T-shirt competitions, brain-freeze contests, costume competitions, interactive games, art exhibitions, dancing, and a polar plunge for visitors who find early spring in the Rocky Mountains insufficiently cold.

The exact 2027 lineup has not yet been released, but the coffin races are the heart of Frozen Dead Guy Days and the tradition most firmly attached to the festival. It would be difficult to celebrate homemade cryogenics properly without at least a few people sprinting through the snow with a fake corpse.

Photo Credit: Frozen Dead Guy Days

What to Know Before You Go

Frozen Dead Guy Days is a weekend-long event, but the main festival has traditionally centered on one primary day at the Estes Park Events Complex. Additional activities take place at the Stanley Hotel and other venues around town. Some surrounding events may require their own tickets or reservations, so do not assume that one festival pass covers the entire weekend.

The full 2027 program, transportation plan, and ticket-release schedule have not yet been announced. The dates, however, are confirmed, which gives travelers time to reserve accommodations before the festival begins appearing on everyone else’s list of strange things they suddenly need to experience.

Estes Park is also a gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, making it easy to add scenic drives, hiking, and wildlife watching to the trip. This provides a useful opportunity to reassure yourself that Colorado contains completely normal attractions too.

Photo Credit: Frozen Dead Guy Days

Why Bookmark It for 2027?

There are plenty of festivals built around music, food, or flowers. Far fewer ask you to plan a weekend around homemade cryogenics, a genuinely frozen grandfather, and teams of costumed adults sprinting while holding a coffin. That alone makes Frozen Dead Guy Days worth remembering, but the setting gives you even more reason to start planning early.

So, here are the reasons why we are prioritizing this event:

• The dates are already confirmed for April 2 through 4, 2027, which gives you plenty of time to book before the rest of the internet remembers this festival exists.

• The coffin races are worth the trip on their own. Teams of costumed adults carry a teammate inside a homemade coffin through an obstacle course, which is either peak community spirit or evidence that Colorado has too much free time in the spring.

• The Stanley Hotel adds another layer of weirdness with Bredo’s current home, a cryonics tour, and its connection to Stephen King’s The Shining. It is difficult to find another hotel where the itinerary can include literary horror, frozen human preservation, and a perfectly respectable cocktail.

• Estes Park lodging can fill around major events, especially at the Stanley, so booking early gives you more options and fewer last-minute choices that involve a long drive through the mountains in the dark.

• Rocky Mountain National Park is right nearby, which means you can spend one day watching competitive pallbearers sprint through the snow and the next looking at elk beneath snow-covered peaks like a completely normal tourist.

Photo Credit: Frozen Dead Guy Days

Frozen Dead Guy Days is part local history, part morbid curiosity, and part extraordinary commitment to a family cryonics project that survived deportation, town ordinances, decades of dry-ice deliveries, and a change of venue. It celebrates a man who has been frozen for more than three decades, but the festival itself is loud, colorful, and very much alive.

The next edition returns April 2027. Book a room, keep an eye out for tickets, and prepare to explain to friends and family that yes, the frozen grandfather is real, the coffins are homemade, and people absolutely race them on purpose.

*Main Image Photo Credit: Frozen Dead Guy Days

Frequently Asked Questions: Frozen Dead Guy Days

What is Frozen Dead Guy Days?

Frozen Dead Guy Days is an annual Colorado festival inspired by Bredo Morstøl, a Norwegian man whose body has been kept frozen since shortly after his death. The celebration is known for homemade coffin races, costumes, live music, cold-weather competitions, and an origin story involving an attempted family cryonics facility.

When is Frozen Dead Guy Days in 2027?

Festival organizers have confirmed that Frozen Dead Guy Days will return to Estes Park on April 2, 3, and 4, 2027. The detailed schedule and ticket information have not yet been released.

Where is Frozen Dead Guy Days held?

The festival is held in Estes Park, Colorado. Its main events have taken place at the Estes Park Events Complex, with additional activities held at the Stanley Hotel and other locations around town.

What are the coffin races?

Teams construct homemade coffins and race them through an obstacle course. Each team has seven members, with six racers transporting the coffin and one designated “corpse” riding inside. Costumes, questionable engineering choices, and dramatic losses of balance are all part of the experience.

What happens at Frozen Dead Guy Days?

The coffin races are the headline event. Recent festivals have also included live music, costumes, frozen-themed games, art, dancing, a polar plunge, and community events around Estes Park. The exact 2027 schedule will be announced closer to the festival.

Is Bredo Morstøl actually still frozen?

Yes. Bredo was moved from Nederland to the Stanley Hotel’s former ice house in 2023 and is now submerged in liquid nitrogen.

Can you see the frozen dead guy?

The Stanley Hotel offers a separate Frozen Dead Guy Tour exploring Bredo’s story and the science of cryonics. The tour lasts approximately 40 minutes, and advance reservations are recommended.

Why did the festival move from Nederland?

Frozen Dead Guy Days began in Nederland but moved to Estes Park in 2023 after more than two decades. Estes Park offers larger venues and allows the festival to spread activities across the events complex, the Stanley Hotel, and other locations around town.