Fun Photos from Frozen Dead Guy Days

Mar 13, 2019 | 1 comment

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®.

Crowds at the showings of “Grandpa’s in the TUFF Shed” at the 2019 Frozen Dead Guy Days festival in Nederland, Colorado

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.comSeven Stones Botanical Gardens CemeteryPassages International, A Good Goodbye, and Heflebower Funeral & Cremation Services.

2019 Frozen Dead Guy Days Sponsor Videos

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.

The Council of Kindness features a wolf, a giraffe, a rhinoceros, a bear, a donkey, and a dolphin, with a ring of 66 birds perched above.

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.”

Couples who played The Newly-Dead Game on Saturday at the 2019 Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival.

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!

Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death, with Lola, the ABQ Death Cafe mascot in a biodegradable bamboo coffin from Passages International.
A Good Goodbye