Frozen Dead Guy Days comes to life in Estes Park this weekend

KUNC | By Beau Baker,

Published March 27, 2026 at 6:00 AM MDT

Participants in colorful costumes carry a mock coffin with a person inside across the snow. — Participants take part in the festival's signature event, the Coffin Race, where teams haul a mock coffin with a "corpse" through an obstacle course. This year's Frozen Dead Guy Days also feature a drone show and a local art exhibition.

There's a lot that makes Frozen Dead Guy Days unique. For one, it's built on the frozen back of a deceased Norwegian.

Get top headlines and KUNC reporting directly to your mailbox each week when you subscribe to In The NoCo.

As the legend goes, 'Grandpa' passed away in Norway in 1989, and his family had the body cryogenically frozen and shipped to the U.S. The frozen man ended up in Nederland and inspired the festival.

A wooden cutout of Grandpa Bredo - Frozen Dead Guy Days eponymous corpse - still stands guard outside of the Nederland Visitors Center on March 6, 2023. New organizers moved the festival away from Nederland, to Estes Park this year, leaving a Frozen-Dead-Guy-Days-shaped hole at the center of Nederland's identity. — The Iceman Go-ith. A wooden cutout of Grandpa Bredo - Frozen Dead Guy Days eponymous corpse - still stands guard outside of the Nederland Visitors Center on March 6, 2023.

Frozen Dead Guy Days has since left Nederland. Its resurrection in Estes Park made way for larger crowds and expanded festivities. 'Grandpa' still presides over the event from a cryonics museum in the Stanley Hotel.

"(The festival) just needed a new home. Needed to branch out a little bit more," said Papea Litchfield with Visit Estes Park. "Since it's been in Estes Park, what we were able to do is really create a whole weekend around the festival."

Some festival events, a bar crawl and the Royal Blue Ball take place on Friday. Saturday starts with the Cannibal Chase 8K, before the festival's signature coffin race.

"People have to actually build a coffin, and they have six pallbearers and one corpse inside the coffin, Litchfield said. "It's just such a fun event to be able to watch."

A drone show and local art exhibit are new to the festival this year.

Music, movie screenings, and other activities thread through the weekend. A complete schedule is here.

Two costumed figures pose at a ballroom dance. — Two costumed guests pose at The Royal Blue Ball. The dance party kicks off the festival at The Stanley Hotel Friday night.