What would bring drunk college students from all over to Colorado?

[tamtrible]

Time: modern day

Comments

[paintitblack]

Depends on where you want it to start happening. Denver has an annual 4/20 festival for pot smokers that has grown exponentially in size since the medical cannabis laws got passed and will likely explode now that the recreational use was legalized. I'm pretty sure it'll become the next Amsterdam, but instead of having to fly out to Europe most college kids could fly/drive out on a much more reasonable budget. I don't personally partake, but friends that do say those festivals are huge. Likely your best bet for that sort of thing.

There are also large-ish events such as pride parades and pagan festivals, though those are likely more localized. There are also a few good sci-fi/anime/other conventions that are held throughout the year. Might not be the best place to mention this but I attend a furry convention in Denver every year that sees attendees from throughout the nation and sometimes internationally.

[carmarthen]

Is there a big 4/20 thing in Denver? It was always in Boulder, I thought, and last year CU finally decided to try to shut it down.

Pot is only semi-legal in Colorado, after all...

But 4/20 was my first thought for something that brings people from all over the country, or at least that used to.

[tamtrible]

So, masses of *stoned* people from all over the country. Probably even better than masses of drunk people

[goose_entity]

there's always events like Testicle Festivals - drunk rednecks making out after nomming down on testes ;)

[tamtrible]

that might be one target, as well.

[orange_fell]

What about just starting it at one of Colorado's own universities? From there, at spring break, a good number of students will flock away to their own homes or vacation spots, spreading your zombie germ--and you could have some event like a popular concert happen the week before break, which could be another contagion hotspot.

[xcarex]

I was thinking something like this as well. Have the contagion/outbreak right before a holiday and let students disperse themselves.

[tamtrible]

Well, to some extent that may fortuitously occur, but basically... the zombies have a hive mind if there's enough of them, and the group trying to spread the contagion are the first zombie hive, which is hiding out somewhere in the mountains. They're trying to identify large groups that will disperse the fungus for them, that engage in lots of fluid-to-fluid contact with others.

Skiers are an almost ideal group, since skiing tends to happen in at least slightly remote areas, where a large mass of dead-looking people can hide somewhere within a mile of where their few presentable members are, ah, exchanging fluids (likely mostly kissing, you can get more targets that way...)

[mmegaera]

Too bad your story's not set in the not so distant past instead of the present, otherwise this would fill your bill nicely. I was in Fort Collins for College Daze in 1979, and it was a zoo.

[enleve]

The first thing that came to mind was the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008. Not exactly what you were looking for, but it was an amusing image.