Snowdown: A Drunken Mid-winter Festival in Durango, Colorado

Snowdown, now in its 38th year is one of the Colorado state's largest winter festivals.

Founded in 1979 in Durango, Snowdown was created as town sized drinking party to brighten the long Southwest Colorado winter, when the sun can duck behind the mountains at 2:30 pm. With the addition of this winter's El Niño, its relentless stream of snowstorms, and single digit temperatures Durango has embraced this year's "Back to the Eighties" theme -- ready to cut loose.

With more than 100 events spread over dozens of locations for five days, the entire town turns out at some point and joins in. There are a few events for families, but most are for adults only and are centered around your average Coloradan's love of beer.

For five days the bars downtown are packed tight with people in costume as joint rolling competitions, drinking games, trivia and eating contests move from location to location.

Meanwhile racy fashion shows, winter sporting contests, balloon ascensions and variety shows take place all over town, leading up to the Snowdown fireworks and light parade down Main Avenue.