Two Days and Nights of Music and Spirits in Estes Park, CO at the Stanley Hotel — the Very Hotel that Inspired Stephen King’s The Shining
This March, the doors of the legendary Stanley Hotel will swing open for a weekend that can’t be repeated, recreated, or relived. To mark the 30th anniversary of their breakthrough album Hot, the Squirrel Nut Zippersare taking over the hotel that inspired The Shiningfor an immersive, no-holds-barred celebration — and when it’s over, it’s over for good.
Taking place Friday and Saturday, March 20–21, this exclusive weekend brings fans inside a world of vintage jazz, haunted glamour, and New Orleans-style revelry as part of the band’s “In The Afterlife” Tour. Tickets and hotel packages are strictly limited, and once they’re gone, this chapter of Zippers history closes forever.
The weekend ignites Friday night with In The Afterlife, a full-scale, 30th anniversary performance celebrating Hot — the album that defied genres, topped the Billboard 200 for 51 weeks, and cemented the Zippers as one of the most singular bands of their era. Later that night, hotel guests are invited deeper into the madness as the Stanley transforms into a Late Night New Orleans Throw Down — a sweat-soaked, horn-blasting French Quarter-style party that won’t happen anywhere else.
Saturday morning kicks off for hotel guests with a New Orleans Jazz Brunch, featuring members of the Zippers performing as The Storyville Allstars, bringing the spirit of the Crescent City to the Rocky Mountains. Guests will enjoy a rare daytime set complete with Bloody Marys and food followed by an exclusive meet-and-greet (for hotel guests only). Saturday night closes the weekend with one final In The Afterlife performance — the last chance to experience this anniversary show in its full, immersive form.
Adding to the once-only nature of the weekend, attendees will also experience special screenings of newly restored Fleischer Studios cartoons, featuring iconic works from Max Fleischer — a major influence on the band’s surreal, vintage aesthetic. These screenings are exclusive to the Stanley Hotel event.
Fans will also have access to limited-edition, event-only merchandise, including posters, apparel, and vinyl celebrating the 30th anniversary of Hot. These items will not be sold online or anywhere else.
“The Stanley Hotel has its ghosts, and we’ve got ours,” said bandleader Jimbo Mathus. “The spirits of old New Orleans, the ‘Blue Angel,’ the ‘Ghost of Stephen Foster’ — they’re all coming out for this one. This isn’t something we’ll ever do again. Expect the unexpected, and don’t wait.”
Originally recorded at Kingsway Studio in New Orleans (owned by Daniel Lanois), Hot produced enduring tracks like “Put a Lid On It,” “Blue Angel,” and the era-defining hit “Hell,” which continues to find new audiences through pop culture moments like Wednesday (2025) and Lucifer (2021).
For longtime fans — and for anyone who loves the sound, style, and spirit of New Orleans’ golden era — this is more than a concert. It’s an experience, a gathering, and a celebration that will only exist for one weekend at one of America’s most iconic hotels.
Tickets and hotel packages are extremely limited and expected to sell out. Visit https://www.snzippers.com/tourdates to purchase.
Miss this weekend, and you miss it forever.
For the most up-to-date information on the band visit:
www.snzippers.com
https://www.facebook.com/SNZippers
https://www.instagram.com/snzippers
About Squirrel Nut Zippers
The Platinum recording artists have sold over three million albums to-date with their watershed album, Hot (1996), making them a household name. Recorded in the heat of New Orleans, fueled by a smoldering mix of booze and a youthful hunger to unlock the secrets of old-world jazz, this pivotal release was just the beginning for the band.
Since then, SNZ has unveiled such hits as Beasts Of Burgundy (2018), which debuted at #4 on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart, and Christmas Caravan (1998), which went on to sell a quarter of a million copies and reach #12 on the Billboard Holiday Albums chart.
Their most recent record Lost Songs of Doc Souchon debuted in late 2020. It featured 10 tracks – a combination of newly-penned Zippers songs, along with a few tunes from past times – and has received acclaim from fans and critics alike.
Since reactivating in mid-2016, SNZ have been performing to packed houses across the country and around the world. As Mathus has said since the band’s re-launch, “it’s not a reunion, it’s a revival.”