During a recent conversation with Go! Magazine Editor Lisa Britton, she asked what the Umatilla County Potato Show was. I said, you know, like every other festival, except some aspect centers around potatoes.

And, really, what are festivals? An excuse to get together, enjoy music and activities — focused around a central theme.

That dovetailed into a conversation about weird festivals I’ve attended. Hands down, Frozen Dead Guy Days was the most bizarre. Held in Nederland, Colorado, I went with good friends Marko and Teri Briley in March 2005.

At the center of the multiple-day event is Bredo Morstoel, who is packed in dry ice in a Tuff Shed. After his death in 1989, Grandpa, as he’s affectionately called, was cryogenically frozen in Norway. Sometime later, the grand-popsicle was shipped to Los Angeles before taking up residence high in the Colorado Rockies.

The permafrost dude was “discovered” during a town hall meeting when family members were denied a certificate of occupancy and faced deportation back to Norway. As the story goes, the daughter asked, “Who will take care of the bodies?”

Bodies? Yes, there were two; however, since that time Grandpa’s refrigerated roomie was cremated. I find the irony of fire and ice a bit amusing.

Belgian actor Herbert Flack knocked ‘em dead while “TV De Wereld” filmed for a Belgian reality show at Grandpa’s Blue Ball, which included music, dancing and frozen drinks.

Marko entered the grandpa look-alike contest and I vied for the ice queen crown. Dressed in my vintage Gunne Sax wedding gown, I applied pale face make-up and spiked my hair with metallic blue gel. While we received positive feedback from fellow festival-goers, Marko and I got the cold shoulder from judges.

After signing a non-disclosure agreement, we went to the Tuff Shed. Representatives of the International Cryonics Institute and Center for Life Extension (aka ICICLE) take cryonics seriously. I made the faux pas of asking what they expected when they thawed the frozen guy. Iceman Bo Shaffer quickly corrected me, saying, “We call it re-animate.”

While the weekend weather had been unseasonably warm, dropping temperatures and an overnight snowstorm brought a layer of snow on the final day of the festival. The morning of the polar plunge, I awoke to the whirring sound of a chainsaw cutting a hole in the ice.

Dressed in ski gear, I jumped in, raising money for our local Special Olympics ski team. Other activities included an ice carving competition, coffin races, a parade of hearses and a frozen T-shirt contest.

While area festivals might not include a frozen dead guy, they do provide an opportunity to have fun with friends. Keep reading Go! to learn about things to see and do throughout the region.