FDGD trickles into Manitou Springs:  The Saturday before Halloween is when Manitou Springs celebrates Emma Crawford with their version of coffin races, since 1995. Emma was buried on a hilltop in 1891 and washed out on Manitou Avenue in 1929. I travelled there on behalf of Frozen Dead Guy Days to cheer on the winning team of our festival’s coffin races and judge their best Emma, coffin, and entourage. FDGD 2022 race champions “Feelin’ Nauti” raced at exceptionally high knots. Their performance landed them in third place by speed, overall! PHOTOS COURTESY OF STEPHANIE ANDELMAN[/caption]

I represented Nederland (and Frozen Dead Guy Days Coffin Races) at the coffin races in Manitou Springs a week ago Saturday, October 29. I judged the best Emma, coffin, and entourage and helped emcee.

FDGD winning coffin racing team, “Feelin’ Nauti” came and raced at exceptionally high knots. They came in overall as number 3 by speed!

When it came to racing for the Coffin Cup, they lost by a fraction of a second to Border Burger Bar who had semi-professional basketball players holding the coffin. So the Coffin Cup remains at Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce.

Every year the two towns compete over claiming the Coffin Cup. The “coffin off” is at Nederland and Manitou Springs.