Riot Pilots Performance at Frozen Dead Guy Days
- Gary Miller
- Mar 21, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 23
Frozen Dead Guy Days is one of the weirdest and most wonderful festivals I’ve ever been to — and it all started because a guy in Nederland had a frozen corpse in his shed. Seriously. In the ’90s, the town found out a Norwegian man was keeping his cryogenically frozen grandpa (Bredo Morstøl) on ice, hoping science would someday bring him back.
It all started with a Norwegian man named Trygve Bauge, who brought his grandfather’s body — Bredo Morstøl — to the U.S. in the early ’90s. Bredo had died in 1989, and Trygve, a firm believer in cryonics, had him packed in dry ice and shipped to California, then eventually to Nederland, Colorado, where he built a cryogenic facility in a backyard shed.
When Trygve was deported for visa issues, his mother Aud Morstøl stayed behind to keep grandpa Bredo frozen. But in 1994, she was evicted for not having plumbing or electricity — and the town discovered there was literally a frozen dead guy in her shed. Nederland passed a law banning the keeping of human remains… but grandfathering in Bredo.
Locals leaned into the weirdness, and in 2002, they launched Frozen Dead Guy Days — a celebration complete with coffin races, frozen turkey bowling, and live music. It’s grown into one of the most unique festivals in the country, all in honor of a very cold Norwegian man in a Tuff Shed.
Colorado is a weird and strange place to grow up.
My friend's JD Robinson and Cameron Blair during their time with Riot Pilots performed during this festival and I was on hand to film with my company Best Worst Cantina Media.
Comments