If you’ve read my book Nailgun Killer, you know Micah Reed encounters a crazy festival near the end of the book.
And it’s real. It’s all real.
In the tiny hamlet of Nederland, CO, there’s an annual festival. Like so many small towns, it’s the thing for all the locals to get excited about and a reason for the near-towners from Denver to take that drive up Boulder Canyon and spend a weekend with the hippies.
It’s local legend and something we all shrug when the festival makes those list of “weirdest town traditions” listicles that appear all over the web. To us, it’s just a fun thing to do in winter.
A 4×4 hearse with mudswampers and a 14″ lift. Because America!
A big part of the weekend is coffin racing, with teams who carry a “corpse” in a “coffin” around a “racetrack” for a “prize”. (Sorry, got a little quote-crazy for a second there.)
The angry birds team. My wife’s favorite.
The pink team. A group of rowdy, day-drunk men behind me at the parade went crazy when these guys passed by.
And, beside the coffin racers, the parade had the big ol’ hearses strolling down the street.
Ooh, damn! Spooky.
Hella gross.
After the parade, the Polar Bear Plunge. Remember, this is late winter up at 8ooo feet in the mountains. Guys in hazmat suits on hand to help people out of the water.
That’s a chicken, jumping into freezing water.
So young, so dumb.
Fly, ballerina!
And there you have it. No reason to go to Ned again until next year, unless for some reason I get a strong itch to visit the gem shop. But, if you’re in the area and have a hankering for a seriously weird festival that is as fun as it is strange, this is the place for you. Happens every winter up in Nederland, Colorado.
