Spotlight: Midnight Sun

The Summer Solstice arrives June 20, 2025 at 9:42 p.m. CDT. It is the moment during the year when the sun is positioned farthest north. For the prior six months, the sun has migrated on a northerly course in the sky. At the moment of the solstice, the northerly motion stops; the sun then begins to move south. The Summer Solstice is the day with the longest period of daylight and shortest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The Summer Solstice has been a significant day of celebration since ancient times. The most widely known celebration is the Solstice at Stonehenge, which was built to align with the sun on the summer and winter solstices. Other northern European countries mark the solstice with festivals and bonfires.

While central Illinois is a great place to be this time of year with outdoor activities, many locals travel over the summer, including places in the far north. This includes Alaska. In the United States, one of the best places to celebrate the Summer Solstice is Fairbanks, Alaska. Fairbanks, located just 140 miles south of the Arctic Circle, is nicknamed “The Land of the Midnight Sun” because it experiences 70 days of consecutive daylight from mid-May through the end of July.  While the sun does sink below the horizon for a few hours each night during this time, it does not dip far. Instead of the darkness of night, when the sun sets, Fairbanks experiences a twilight period a few hours long with enough light remaining for outdoor activities before the sun rises again. The peak of midnight sun season runs from the beginning of June to mid-July, during which time the sun is visible above the horizon at midnight in Fairbanks. 

Alaska became the 49th state of the United States on January 3, 1959. Long before that, on June 21, 1906, Fairbanks began a unique tradition associated with the Summer Solstice that continues to this day – the Midnight Sun Baseball Game. Dubbed the “High Noon at Midnight Classic,” the Midnight Sun Game is an amateur baseball game played over midnight on the Summer Solstice under the midnight sun without any artificial lighting. It began as a Gold Rush era challenge between baseball teams associated with two local Fairbanks bars, with the novelty of playing baseball under the sun at midnight. Since 1960, the game has been hosted by the Alaska Goldpanners, a collegiate summer baseball team based in Fairbanks. The 120th Midnight Sun Baseball Game will be held beginning at 10:00 p.m. on June 20, 2025. Several well-known major leaguers have participated in this unique tradition. Jason Giambi was a top hitter for the Goldpanners in 1990. Hall of Famer Tom Seaver, who spent two seasons with the Goldpanners (1964-1965), pitched in a Midnight Sun Game. Another Hall of Famer Dave Winfield spent two summers with the Goldpanners (1971–1972) and is honored with a bronze statue outside Growden Park, the Goldpanners home field. While baseball boasts many quirky customs and traditions, the Midnight Sun Game is a bucket-list item for many baseball fans.