One of Colorado’s quirkiest festivals is returning this weekend, and it’s bringing some new events.

Frozen Dead Guy Days is returning to Estes Park this Saturday, March 28. Festival events will run from Friday, March 27 to Sunday, March 29.

The festival draws visitors in with its “quirky traditions, high-energy entertainment,” and “one-of-a-kind atmosphere.” The highlight of the event is the coffin races, where 30 teams will race in elaborately designed coffins and creative costumes through an obstacle course.

This year, the festival will include some new and exciting events. To finish the festival, there will be a historic drone show finale. The commemorative drone show is created in partnership with the Colorado Tourism Office’s America 250 – Colorado 150 initiative, celebrating 250 years of America and 150 years of Colorado.

The Aspen & Evergreen gallery is also putting on the Dead of Winter Art Exhibit, which is inspired by the Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival. It will be on view from March 3-27, then taken to the Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival on March 28.

The last new event for 2026 is the Cannibal Chase 8K, a “fast, fun, and slightly unhinged race” that will bring “big energy and bigger costumes” to the festival.

The festival will also feature many more morbidly entertaining events, including the bar crawl, Royal Blue Ball at the Stanley Hotel, Polar Plunge Pavilion Party at The Stanley Hotel, and more.

Frozen Dead Guy Days has an intriguing backstory involving cryonics, deportation, and dry ice. The festival is in honor of “Grandpa” Bredo Morstoel. Grandpa Bredo died in 1989 in Norway, and was packed in dry ice, prepared for international travel, and sent to the Trans Time cryonics facility in Oakland, California. There, he was put in liquid nitrogen for almost four years.

He was then moved to Colorado to stay with his daughter and grandson, where he stayed for years under cold cover in a shed near his grandson’s house. When both his daughter and grandson were deported back to Norway, Grandpa Bredo was allowed to stay in Nederland. In August 2023, Grandpa Bredo was moved to the Stanley Hotel’s old ice house in Estes Park, where he has resided ever since.

Check out more information and a full schedule of events for Frozen Dead Guy Days here.

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