The world celebrates some strange things. Festivals and carnivals around the world celebrate and honor things that many of us have no idea exist. Such as the huge event held in Norway, where they build a giant bonfire to celebrate midsummer. It’s a pretty crazy tradition. Working at BuzzNick we get the chance to research and write about many of these obscure festivals. This one that is held in Colorado may take the cake when it comes to “weird” though. It starts out with a man named Bredo Morstoel, a Norwegian citizen. He passed away in 1989, and after his passing his grandson came up with a really weird and creepy plan. Check out what his grandson was trying to do and how it came to be a festival below!
This is Bredo Morstoel. He passed away in 1989 at 89 years old. Seems like a pretty full life right? Well apparently it wasn’t long enough for his grandson.
This is Bredo’s grandson, Trygve Bauge. After his grandfathers passing he had an extremely strange idea. He decided he wanted to cryogenically freeze his grandfathers body, all so he could attempt what is currently impossible, bringing someone back to life. Bauge had his grandfather’s body flown San Francisco. It was placed in a temporary cryogenic storage facility. Gauge was planning to keep his grandfather there until he had completed building his own personal cryogenic storage facility.
Unfortunately for Bauge, in the mid 1990’s the INS caught wind that Bauge was here illegally living in Nederland, Colorado after he failed to obtain a visa. They sent him back to Norway, and his mother was forced to leave the town as well. Bauge had already been able to transport his grandfather’s body back to his makeshift cryo-facility in Nederland. He was forced to leave the body behind when he left however.
Town officials, for some crazy reason, decided to let Bauge keep the body in what really amounts to a shed filled with dry ice.
He was able to make arrangements with a local man who now refills the shed with dry ice every two weeks.
This is the inside of the shed where Bauge’s grandfather is kept. It takes between 900 and 1,200 pounds of dry ice to fill the makeshift casket.
Ever since then, Morstoel’s body has become the focus of Nederlands spring festival. Which is aptly named, “Frozen Dead Guy Days.” The annual Frozen Dead Guy Days celebration continues to attract all manner of fun-loving oddballs with promises of live music, adult beverages, crazy costumes, and a wide assortment of offbeat events. Trygve, who receives a share of the proceeds from festival-led tours of Grandpa Bredo’s shed, dubbed it “Cryonics’ first Mardi Gras,” according to the Frozen Dead Guy Days website.
Here are a few pictures from recent ‘Frozen Dead Guy Days’ Festivals:
Check Out This Video About Frozen Dead Guy Days Festival!
More Info: Frozen Dead Guy Days
This is a pretty unique festival. Who comes up with the idea to try to cryogenically freeze someone themselves though? I feel like Bauge may have just been a little to attached to his grandfather. I mean I love my grandparents dearly, but to turn into what almost amounts to an evil scientist to save one of them? I think my limit my be a little bit farther back down the line then his was.