Midnight Sun Game
The Midnight Sun Game is an amateur baseball game held every year on the summer solstice in Growden Memorial Park, Fairbanks, Alaska. Because the sun stays out nearly all night, the game starts around 10:30 p.m. and usually finishes about 1:30 a.m. But due to time zones and daylight saving time, it can spill past solar midnight.
No artificial lights are used, and the sun only dips below the horizon for about an hour. The first game was in 1906, and the event has never used lights. Since 1960, it has been hosted by the Alaska Goldpanners, a college summer team from Fairbanks. Before 1960, teams from the Fairbanks area played. After 2015, the Goldpanners left the Alaska Baseball League and typically played against other college summer teams from around the United States. In 2020, the game was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and heavy rain; a local American Legion team faced a local Town Team in a shortened game. In 2021, the Midnight Sun Tournament expanded to include a doubleheader featuring the Legion final and the Goldpanners’ game.
Notable players who have appeared include Tom Seaver, Dave Winfield, Terry Francona, Harold Reynolds, Jason Giambi, and Bill "Spaceman" Lee. Noel Wien once noted that the game starts at midnight “to show this is the farthest city in the country.”
The Alaska Goldpanners have a 49-15 all-time record in Midnight Sun Games.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 17:47 (CET).