Plans call for Frozen Dead Guy Days to be in Estes Park for the next three years, according to a contract with Visit Estes Park signed in 2023. What is in question is how much VEP will spend to make that happen, or whether to replace the current contract with one for five years.
The two agreements VEP first discussed on Sept. 25 will be considered again this Thursday during the board’s October meeting.
On Monday, the board received a recommendation from staff to continue sponsoring FDGD at a cost of $275,000 while decreasing VEP’s marketing contributions to $19,000 which would be dedicated to digital display ads. Under the staff’s recommendation, the marketing support amount aligns with the organization’s event policy that was formally adopted by the board in September.
Under the five-year arrangement proposed by festival promoter Von Freeman, owner of Bosco Productions, sponsorship costs for the March event would increase to $340,000 but decrease to $226,000 over five years. Freeman said those payments would include all advertising costs in the future.
He also predicted that the number of people coming to the festival during a traditionally slow period of the year would also increase.
In the past, Frozen Dead Guy Days has been held over the St. Patrick’s Day weekend, but in 2026 the event will be from March 27 through March 29.
The economic impact of the 2025 event “came back at $3.1 million supported nearly by 1,200 local jobs and generating over a half million dollars in tax revenue,” Freeman told the board in September.
“Almost three quarters of the attendees, 74%, came to Estes Park for the very first time because of the festival,” Freeman said. “It isn’t just a weekend event. It’s got long-term investments written all over it, a growth of tourism investment,” he said.
“It’s like nothing else that Estes Park has ever done before, for that matter any city has ever done before.” Freeman said. “There’s no other event in the country like this. You have something so unique, and so wonderful, and so culturally relevant that’s getting all kinds of national and international media covering it,” Freeman said.
Marie Cenac, town board liaison to VEP voiced her concerns about the costs incurred.
“That’s much more than we spent on all the other events that are town-sponsored events,” she said. “I’m just not comfortable” with the expenditure for the event, Cenac said.
“In my mind, it’s a branding issue,” said Deb Gibson, board member. “It’s the equivalent of what some of the ski areas have done in branding their summer season. We need to do the same thing with our winter season, and we’re already doing it. But Frozen Dead Guy Days is not just that weekend. It’s what it does to promote winter in Estes Park,” Gibson said.
The Town events Cenac referred to are known as Town signature events and include First Peoples Festival, Wine and Cheese Festival, Whiskey Warm Up, Bigfoot Days, Wool Market, Rooftop Rodo, Elk Festival, Rocky Mountain Craft Spirits Festival, and the Catch the Glow parade. VEP spent $11,100 in sponsorship dollars for those Town-owned events, along with another estimated $4,500 in staff time and advertising costs for each of those nine events, bringing the total expenditure for signature events to $51,600.
In addition to Town events, VEP provides $700,950 in cash, staff time, and advertising costs to 43 other local events, including Christmas activities and Skijor, which will be held in January.
Holiday event expenditures include the costs for stringing lights in trees throughout town, the new Sleigh The Games weekend, plus other weekend activities such as the Snowman Scavenger Hunt, Sweets Stroll, Holiday Light Décor Walking Trail, the tree lighting event, and general advertising print materials.
The Visit Estes Park Board of Directors will meet virtually from 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23. A final budget hearing will be held on Dec. 4. It will probably be the last budget considered by current board members because the town and Larimer County are expected to approve a new intergovernmental agreement that calls for changing the composition of the board in January.
Correction, October 23, 2025 9:38 am: The story has been updated to reflect the correct year VEP signed a contract with for the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival.