Thursday, February 16, 2017
More than 20,000 people will attend the 16th annual Frozen Dead Guy Days (FDGD) festival in Nederland, Colorado, 17 miles west of Boulder, March 10-12, 2017. Reader’s Digest and readers of USA Today named FDGD one of the top five winter festivals in the country.
This quirky celebration of all things dead and frozen receives national media coverage every year. The event features coffin races, a parade of hearses, costumed polar plunging, frozen t-shirt contests, The Newly-Dead Game® by Gail Rubin, lots of music, and much more. And yes, there is a real frozen dead guy at the center of the celebration. Check out the full schedule of events.
Frozen Dead Guy Days honors Grandpa Bredo Morstoel from Norway, who died from a heart condition in 1989. His grandson Trygve, a strong advocate for cryonics, had Grandpa packed in dry ice and shipped to a U.S. cryonics facility for preservation and possible future reanimation. In 1993, Trygve, who hoped to start his own life extension facility, moved Grandpa to his bomb-proof home in Nederland, Colorado. Then things got really weird. You can read the entire story here.
Pioneering death educator Gail Rubin, CT, shows the documentary “Grandpa’s in the TUFF Shed” at FDGD. The film tells the strange but true story of the Frozen Dead Guy’s origin. The 25-minute film is shown from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the bar at the Black Forest Restaurant, 40 Big Springs Drive in Nederland.
She also emcees The Newly-Dead Game, which she created and debuted at FDGD in 2011. Game sessions will take place on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. and on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. Couples sign up in advance to claim the coveted four slots available for each game, which is free for participants.
Check out a video from last year:
The showings of “Grandpa’s in the TUFF Shed” and The Newly-Dead Game are sponsored by Passages International, leaders in environmentally-friendly and green funeral products, and their educational website, www.AGreenerFuneral.org.
Passages provides funeral and burial products that are environmentally friendly, so you can create a meaningful farewell for those you love. Learn more at www.PassagesInternational.com.
AGreenerFuneral.org is a guide to creating a farewell that’s more meaningful for you, those you love and the planet.
Learn about biodegradable caskets and urns, choices for greening your final arrangements, greener cemeteries and embalming, and other eco-friendly information.
Gail Rubin, CT, is author and host of the award-winning book and television series, A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die, Hail and Farewell: Cremation Ceremonies, Templates and Tips, and KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die.
Rubin is a Certified Thanatologist (that's a death educator) and a popular speaker who uses humor and films to get the end-of-life and funeral planning conversation started. She "knocked 'em dead" with her TEDx talk, A Good Goodbye. She provides continuing education credit classes for attorneys, doctors, nurses, social workers, hospice workers, financial planners, funeral directors and other professionals. She's a Certified Funeral Celebrant and funeral planning consultant who has been interviewed in national and local print, broadcast and online media.
Known as The Doyenne of Death®, she also hosts A Good Goodbye Internet radio show and produces Mortality Minute radio and online video spots.
Rubin is a member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, Toastmasters International and the National Speakers Association New Mexico Chapter. Her speaking profile is available at eSpeakers.com.
Gail Rubin has been interviewed about funeral planning issues in national and local broadcast, print and online media. Outlets include The Huffington Post, Money Magazine, Kiplinger, CBS Radio News, WGN-TV, and local affiliates for NPR, PBS, FOX, ABC-TV, CBS-TV and NBC-TV.
Sign up for a free planning form and occasional informative newsletter at her website, AGoodGoodbye.com.
Albuquerque, NM