Fairbanks, Alaska, hosts the annual Midnight Sun Game on the summer solstice.
The game is a baseball tradition played at Growden Memorial Park, usually beginning late at night and continuing past midnight without artificial stadium lighting. Fairbanks lies roughly 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle, where the June solstice brings exceptionally long daylight.
The first game was played in 1906, reportedly after two local bar teams agreed to play through midnight. The Alaska Goldpanners took over as regular hosts in 1960, helping turn the event into one of Alaska’s best-known baseball traditions.
The game is not the same event as Fairbanks’s Midnight Sun Festival or Midnight Sun Run. Those are separate solstice celebrations, although all three rely on the city’s famous summer light.