The 2019 Frozen Dead Guy Days festival in Nederland, Colorado drew a record-breaking 20-25,000 attendees March 8-10. In our little corner of the festival, we had 1,200 people come to watch the 1998 Robin Beeck documentary “Grandpa’s in the TUFF Shed” and play (or watch others play) The Newly-Dead Game®.
This is the biggest number of attendees we’ve had at our part of the festival. While I can’t show you the film online, here are the video messages from our sponsors that made it possible to bring sessions of The Newly-Dead Game and showings of “Grandpa’s in the TUFF Shed” to the 2019 festival. A big thanks to AquamationInfo.com, Seven Stones Botanical Gardens Cemetery, Passages International, A Good Goodbye, and Heflebower Funeral & Cremation Services.
In our location at the Caribou Shopping Center in downtown Nederland, we shared the space with a sculpture called The Council of Kindness. The Council of Kindness is designed as a silent sanctuary for visitors to have an opportunity to heal in the company of life-size animal and bird sculptures.
While ordinarily this is a quiet refuge, we had so many visitors for the film, at times people sat next to the sculptures to watch the documentary. This unique art installation needs a permanent home. Interested? Learn more at www.CouncilofKindness.org.
We conducted four sessions of The Newly-Dead Game®: two with couples, two with individuals and the audience playing along. Those who got the highest scores, either by knowing their partner’s wishes best or by being the most prepared for end-of-life issues, received “valuable prizes.”
Ever since I started bringing The Newly-Dead Game to Frozen Dead Guy Days in 2011, Amanda MacDonald has been the coordinator of the festival. The news this year: she is done. She wants to sell the festival to someone else, or help form a nonprofit organization to keep the party going. Watch this news story from the Denver CBS affiliate.
Whatever happens, Frozen Dead Guy Days is a great opportunity for sponsors to connect with thousands of enthusiastic visitors who range in age from their 20s to their 70s. Let’s not let this award-winning festival die!
