You know Coachella and Burning Man, where around 200,000 party-goers flock each weekend. With the vast selection of festivals worldwide, there's something for every taste: from relaxed camping in a meadow to partying in front of the speakers.
But there are festivals that are crazier than anything you’ve ever seen. For example, in West Virginia, where the Mothman, a monster with red eyes, is celebrated. Or in Colorado, where a cryogenically frozen Norwegian became the festival mascot posthumously.
Mothman Festival: A Monster, a Collapsing Bridge, and Richard Gere
Point Pleasant in West Virginia has something many tourism boards dream of: its own Monster Mythos! Namely Mothman, a winged figure with red eyes, whose legend is based on Sightings from the 1960s The annual Mothman Festival takes place in Point Pleasant every third weekend in September, celebrating this very local horror story.
The legend began in 1966 with reports of sightings of a winged creature with red eyes and later with the collapse of the Silver Bridge, where 46 people died, associated with.
John Keels Book „The Mothman Prophecies“ made the stuff 1975 known, 2002 The film adaptation starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney followed. Since then, Mothman has been as much a part of the town as the welcome sign – only with more merchandise. In 2025, the Mothman Festival run 32.000 Visitors.
What emerged from this sounds like a reunion between X-Files fans and a gothic children's birthday party. There are food trucks, merchandise, cosplay, speakers, and of course, someone talking far too seriously about a creature that never existed.
Roswell UFO Festival: The UFO Myth as an Economic Factor
The Roswell UFO Festival ties into a myth that 1947 began. In 1947, something fell from the sky in the New Mexico desert. Debris that many believed could only be one thing: a crashed UFO. The US Army initially reported the find as a „flying disc“ and shortly thereafter classified it as a weather balloon.
Later investigations by the U.S. Air Force traced the incident to Project Mogul, a secret Cold War-era balloon program. The town has since built a tourism ecosystem around the incident. 75th Anniversary The Roswell Incident brought the 2022 UFO Festival more than 40,000 Visitors to Roswell and had a direct economic effect of $2.19 million.
How an Alien Meme Got Authorities Sweating
how strongly UFO myths still resonate today, showed 2019 an internet phenomenon that under the name „Storm Area 51“ became known. It all started Matty Roberts from California – not as a real festival, but as a satirical Facebook event with the idea of jointly „storming“ the highly secured military base Area 51 in Nevada and allegedly freeing hidden aliens there.
More than two million people clicked „Going“ online. The US Air Force publicly warned against it, Military restricted area to enter, and the surrounding desert locations suddenly had to reckon with a meme becoming a real problem.
At the end, Area 51, of course, not stormed. Instead, some participants tried to divert the hype into legal events. This is how, among other things, Alienstock in Rachel, Nevada – an alien event that grew out of a viral Facebook joke, but turned out to be significantly smaller than the internet hype suggested.
Out of millions of online promises, there were no crowds on site, but rather predominantly curious people, meme tourists, and a few very convinced UFO fans in the desert. This had nothing to do with the Roswell UFO Festival.
Frozen Dead Guy Days: A Deep-Frozen Grandpa as a Party Reason
Frozen Dead Guy Days is a festival in Colorado that is based on A story goes back, which is even for American small-town folklore unusual is. The festival's star: Bredo Morstøl, a Norwegian, who 1989 with 89 died of heart disease after years. Morstøl was not a celebrity, but a former director of Parks and Recreation in Bærum County, Norway.
Morstøl only became famous after his death. His daughter and grandson believed in Cryonics. In this process, human bodies are preserved at extremely low temperatures in the hope that they might one day be revived. That is why they had his body transported to the United States. At first, he was kept in the Time Transference Facility stored in California, where it was preserved in liquid nitrogen for several years.
1993 Morstøl came to Nederland, Colorado, because his grandson Trygve Bauge wanted to set up his own cryonics facility there. The plan never came to fruition. What was supposed to be a temporary professional solution in California turned into makeshift storage in a shed—kept cool with dry ice.
As Bauge was deported from the USA due to an overstayed visa and the authorities learned of the preserved body, the private family decision became a Local dispute. The city of Nederland banned the storage of human and animal bodies on private property, but made an exception for Morstøl. This made „Grandpa Bredo“ definitively more than just a dead man in the ice: he became an absurd Special rule a small town.
From the shed to the cryonics museum
His body was still lying in the shed and was being... 1995 supervised by Bo Shaffer, who soon became known in the city as „The Iceman“ was known. He regularly organized dry ice and ensured that the preservation continued.
2002 The town turned it into a festival. The idea came from the local Chamber of Commerce and was intended to bring visitors to the mountain town during the quiet winter season. Frozen Dead Guy Days began with coffin races, costumes, and music.
After logistical problems in the Netherlands, the 2022 festival was sold and moved to Estes Park relocated – of all places to the Stanley Hotel, that famous house, which Stephen King to The Shining inspired. In August 2023, „Grandpa Bredo“ also moved to 30 years in the shed. He is no longer resting improvised on dry ice, but in liquid nitrogen at the hotel's „International Cryonics Museum.“ Since then, the Frozen Dead Guy Days have also taken place in Estes Park.
Mike the Headless Chicken Festival: Party for a Headless Rooster
In Fruita, Colorado, a Hahn celebrated, the 1945 was actually supposed to be slaughtered. Mike, a young Wyandotte rooster, survived the axe blow because parts of his brainstem and a vein apparently remained intact. Instead of minutes, he lived for about 18 months Furthermore, it was supplied with fluids and food via the esophagus and later referred to as „Miracle Mike“shown at sideshows – that is, as a carnival attraction for a paying audience.
The story was told at the time, among others, by picked up by LIFE Magazine and is to this day the reason why the town of Fruita hosts a festival for a headless chicken every year. The festival takes place in May and combines the story of „Miracle Mike“ with music, a race, food, merchandise, and family activities.
From a failed battle attempt, a city tradition was born. To this day, Fruita doesn't celebrate a fabricated myth, but a documented exceptional casea rooster that, by all medical accounts, should not have survived.
Emma Crawford Coffin Races: One Time Through the City with a Coffin
In Manitou Springs, Colorado, An annual story is celebrated each year, somewhere between local tragedy and Halloween madness. The main character is called Emma Crawford. She came 1889 into the city in hopes that the mountain air and dry climate might alleviate her tuberculosis. But the disease was stronger than the spa town optimism. Crawford died 1891, just a few years after her arrival. Her last wish: she wanted to be buried Red Mountain to be buried.
According to local legend, her fiancé Wilhelm Hildenbrand, a civil engineer for the Pikes Peak Cog Railway, carried Crawford's coffin along with eleven other townspeople up Red Mountain and buried him. Crawford did not lie there in a protected cemetery, but on a mountain where snow, rain, and erosion damaged the grave over the years. 1929 that was it. Your coffin detached from the slope and slid into the valley. The children of the village later found individual remains such as coffin handles, a nameplate, and some bones.
From this macabre local history, the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce in 1995 made the Emma Crawford Coffin Races, a Halloween festival featuring coffin races through the city. Teams build decorated coffins on wheels, with one person playing the role of the deceased Emma, and four „mourners“ pushing the coffin over a course. 180 meters long distance along Manitou Avenue, the town's main street. In the end, it's not just about which team fastest The organizers will also award prizes for the best coffin, best costume, and best entourage.
According to the official Festival page come more than 10,000 spectators to Downtown Manitou Springs, many of them in costume. In 2025, according to local Sender KKTV around 60 Teams in 2026, the city was already discussing additional safety rules. Because the quirky coffin race has long since become a major event. The city expects around 8,000 to 15,000 visitors for the Coffin Races.
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