FanGraphs and Effectively Wild Are Going to EclipseFest

We’ve acquired 50 more tickets after selling out of our initial allotment. Sales are back open!

On Monday, August 21st, the first total solar eclipse to hit the United States in 26 years will make its way across the country, and the path of totality will take it right through the town of Keizer, Oregon, home to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, the Northwest League affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. To celebrate the event, the Volcanoes are hosting EclipseFest, a weekend celebration of astronomy and baseball.

On the actual day of the Eclipse, they have scheduled a morning game (9:35 am first pitch) to allow for what they are calling the Total Eclipse of the Park; the game will halt during the event, and those in attendance will view the eclipse together. Included among those in attendance will be Effectively Wild hosts Ben Lindbergh and Jeff Sullivan; I will also be joining the festivities, and we want to invite FanGraphs readers and Effectively Wild listeners to join us for this unique convergence of baseball and astronomy.

Based on the the responses to the post gauging interest on the Effectively Wild Facebook page, it appears that a good number of you are thinking about attending, so we’ve purchased a group block of 75 lower box tickets to the game, which we are making available today. Yes, August is still a ways away, but because of the significant demand for tickets to the event — the Volcanes are selling General Admission berm seating for $25, to give you an idea of the crowd they’re anticipating — we wanted to make these available as soon as possible.

As part of the event, you will receive access to a pre-game breakfast buffet at the ballpark, and will receive a lower box seat to the game in the FG/EW section; the Volcanoes will also be providing the necessary protective eyewear to watch the eclipse. All of this is included in your purchase of a ticket to the event, which we are selling for just $32, a price that simply covers our cost for acquiring and distributing the tickets.

So, if you want to join us for some baseball history — as far as we know, this may be the first eclipse delay in affiliated baseball — at a spot with one of the best potential views of the total eclipse in the world, click below to purchase your tickets.

Buy Tickets for EclipseFest with FanGraphs and Effectively Wild

One of the other reasons we are opening up tickets to the event seven months in advance is that, due to the long-term planning of eclipse chasers, there are effectively no available hotel rooms in the area for the night of August 20th. The closest hotels with availability, per my search last night on Hotels.com, are in the southern suburbs of Portland, roughly 30-40 miles north of the Volcanoes stadium. If you intend to travel to this event, we wanted to give you as much lead time to find lodging and transportation as possible. It is likely that other traveling attendees will be interested in splitting rooms and/or rental cars, so the EW Facebook page will have a thread to allow you guys to coordinate room and car shares, or for locals to offer rides down to the game.

We hope you can join us for this rare astronomical event!