When the clock strikes midnight Friday, many people will already be in bed. In Fairbanks, Alaska, they'll still be at the ballpark, where the lights never come on.
Since 1906, the "Midnight Sun Game" has been held in Fairbanks, a city with a population just under 95,000 people. First pitch is typically at 10 p.m. and lasts past midnight. The catch? It takes place on the summer solstice, when the sun doesn't fully set for 24 hours.
"Here's this really crazy just contrast of a very American ballgame with all of the pageantry and flyovers of the military and singing, kids running the bases," said Dr. Katherine Ringsmuth, Alaska state historian, to ESPN. "Yet you look at your watch and it's midnight."
And of course, the lights at Growden Memorial Park, which hosts the game, don't work. They haven't since 2003.
"It's really not that much of a nuisance to not have them," Alaska Goldpanners general manager John Lohrke told ESPN. "... But they're pretty old, you know, before LEDs and all that. So I'm afraid what would happen if we turn the switch on and see what might take place."
The Goldpanners, a summer baseball team in Fairbanks, has hosted the game since 1963. This year, they play the Utah Yaks on Friday. Through the years, future Baseball Hall of Famers like Dave Winfield and Tom Seaver have played for the Goldpanners, the latter of which started in the Midnight Sun Game.
It's one of baseball's oldest traditions, a bucket list item for fans traveling from as far away as Japan and Australia. Attendees from at least 40 states and two to three countries are the norm for the crowd.
F-35s fly over following the national anthem. Once midnight comes around, members from SingUnited take the field to perform the Alaska flag song. It's all about building a fun, family atmosphere that would be challenging to replicate anywhere else. Alaska is one of the few places in the world to have the "midnight sun" phenomenon.
"You can't really describe it because it's just unique," Lohrke said. "We've had coaches and people come to our organization and ... they'll say, 'John, I've been involved in baseball a long time and I've never had an experience as cool as this.' There's really nothing like it."
The game began as a bar bet between miners searching for gold.
Following the California gold rush in the middle of the 19th century, the Klondike region in northwestern Canada had its own rush near the end of the 1890s. Then it was Nome in south Alaska before reaching Fairbanks, which brought miners, like Eddie Stroecker.
Deemed the "Father of the Midnight Sun Game," Stroecker was a ballplayer from California. Like many others, he came to Fairbanks to find gold. Stroecker worked for the California bar and, according to local legend, made a bet with the Eagle's Club involving a baseball game.
The gold rush is a key component of its origins. However, there are additional layers to the game's continuation early on.
"Yeah, it's this bar bet. Yeah, it's a reflection of the American society at that time moving into Alaska. But it's also a promotional thing, right? They're trying to get people to come to Alaska," Ringsmuth said.
Media began covering it, including the New York Times in 1914 and 1945, only adding to the impact for Fairbanks. Before the Goldpanners became the hosts, there were various participants. Local leagues kept the unique event alive, and during the two World Wars, military teams became part of them. The popularity increased decade by decade.
Stroecker was a key player, appearing in the game until 1918. Local sports aficionados credit him as a driving force behind it. The game is now appropriately named the "W.G. & Eddie Stroecker Midnight Sun Game" after Eddie and his son William George, who was also involved in the game.
In 1960, future Fairbanks mayor Red Boucher founded the Goldpanners. He focused his efforts on further promotion, taking the team to Wichita for a national tournament. That resulted in Boucher bringing a squad from Wichita to play in the Midnight Sun Game in 1963.
"That kind of created the whole kind of promotion around and aura really continued that legend of the Midnight Sun Game and filling the stands and making it into just an extraordinary global event, which it really is today," Ringsmuth said.
During Lohrke's tenure, he estimates that not too many players knew about the game before joining the team. But once they did, they thought it was cool and wanted to be there, he said. It has always been "a special night in Fairbanks," Lohrke added.
Growden Memorial Park typically holds 1,800 fans. It expands to 2,500 for the Midnight Sun Game with only about 130 seats reserved and the rest available for general admission. Reserved tickets for this year's contest sold out within an hour, Lohrke told ESPN.
Lohrke has been the general manager since 2016. The demand for the game has intensified every year. He said the game is "as much of a social experience as it is a baseball experience."
"It's almost like a concert. It's like people look for it. They look at our website and they get a feel [for] when are they available? When are they available? And it's just a frenzy," he said. "We're just sitting there watching our phones and it's you know, bing, bing, bing, and just it's pretty nuts."
There is a baseball game in Alaska played at MIDNIGHT under SUNLIGHT 🤯
— MLB (@MLB) May 26, 2026
The Midnight Sun Game in Fairbanks, Alaska is a 120-year-old tradition where baseball is played on the summer solstice, under Alaska's 24-hour sunlight
Since 1960, the game has been hosted by the Alaska... pic.twitter.com/41Az0mtgWk
This year's game will purposefully be played a day before Alaska's summer solstice. Fairbanks hosts a midnight sun festival on Saturday from noon to midnight, and there's a 10K run that begins at 10 p.m. the same day. Therefore, they avoid Saturday to not compete with each other.
Gates for the game open at 8 p.m. and more tickets will be sold 30 minutes before it starts, with the expectation that there probably won't be open seats.
"And they will not care," Lohrke said. "They will say, 'We want to be there. It's fun. We'll go to the beer garden and hang out or we'll be wherever, but we just want to be there.' They just want to be a part of it. The demand is greater than ever. It's really amazing."
A key result of that demand? For the first time, a jumbotron and five instant replay cameras will be in the park Friday provided by a production company from Anchorage.
So far, obstacles haven't gotten in the way during its 121-year history. It has been played through world wars and global pandemics. Over 200 major league players plied their trade with the Goldpanners.
Last June, Growden Memorial Park was added to the National Register of Historical Places, making it available to apply for funds. The Goldpanners are now financially strong enough where they could explore renovating the lights, Lohrke said.
Mother Nature has helped sustain the game for more than a century, and there are few signs of that changing anytime soon. All one has to do is listen to the famous lyrics of the song "Tomorrow" from the musical 1977 musical "Annie": "The sun'll come out, tomorrow." And with it, Fairbanks' summer solstice will include the Goldpanners shining on the field.