The cryogenic event of the year, "Frozen Dead Guy Days," started an event-filled day on March 9 in Nederland, Colorado. The new festival is themed around Grandpa Bredo, preserved at -109F degrees corpse, once a subject of controversy but now celebrated with civic pride by the community. The 2-day festival includes a pancake breakfast, hourly tours around the new Bredo cryo-shed, a Grandpa lookalike contest, and coffin races for the youngsters. There is also a viewing of the film about Bredo, "Grandpa's in the Tuff Shed."

Nederland's "Frozen Dead Guy Days" signals a strong trend emerging in community festivals, first hinted at by Fruita, Colorado's "Mike the Headless Chicken Days." That festival salutes the town's mascot chicken, who lived for years in the 1940s with no head, before choking to death on a corn kernal. Unfortunately, no one at the time thought to freeze Mike.

"Frozen Dead Guy Days" organizers hope to keep their event going each year until they have the technology to revive Grandpa. [Thanks for the tip to Craig Hitchcock] [03/09/2002]

February 10, 2012