Nanook Traditions

Starvation Gulch

Bonfires are set ablaze as students enjoy the intense heat, dancing and table games available at the 2024 Starvation Gulch event held in the Nenana Parking Lot

September 11-13, 2025


Once again, Nanook Traditions kicks off the school year with Starvation Gulch. The bonfires have been a symbol of the passing of the torch of knowledge to our new students since 1923. We welcome back all our students with wishes for a great school year. Enjoy the biggest bonfires you'll ever see!

4—6 p.m. ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
Green Bikes Group Ride: Get to Know Fairbanks

Location: Meet at Arctic Java
Join Green Bikes Advisor, Simon Rakower, on a guided 10 mile bike ride around Fairbanks, and learn how bikeable Fairbanks is!
6—8 p.m. ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
S'mores and Fires

Location: Arctic Java
Enjoy the soothing company of your friends, make some s’mores, and warm up by the fire outside of Arctic Java.
6—8 p.m. ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
Howdy Hat Social

Location: Arctic Java
Come to Arctic Java to decorate your very own cowboy hat in preparation for Friday’s Hoedown Throwdown dance!
10 a.m.—12 p.m. ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
Campus Community Cleanup

Location: Arctic Java
Join the Office of Sustainability, SLI, and ASUAF on a campus-wide clean-up. Give back to the community, hang out with friends, and earn a special item for cleaning up campus!
12—3 p.m. ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
Traditions Tie-Dye

Location: Arctic Java
Looking for a way to express your creativity through color and patterns? Come down to Arctic Java to grab a free Nanook Traditions shirt and tie-dye it up!
12—3 p.m. ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
Bean There, Game That

Location: Arctic Java
Grab some friends, grab some controllers, and grab a seat in the lounge at Arctic Java to play some fun couch co-op games with Esports!
12:30—2:30 p.m. ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
Bike Jousting

Location: Arctic Java
Join Green Bikes for a fun bike jousting tournament! Hop on a bike and grab a pool noodle, and knock your fellow students off their bikes until you’re the last one standing.
7—10 p.m. ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
Hoedown Throwdown

Location: Hess Recreation Center
Wear your best country or western outfit and head over to the Hess Recreation Center for an awesome and fun country-themed dance with live music from the band Funeral Horses.
10 a.m.—2 p.m. ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
Starvation Gulch Team Build

Location: Nenana Parking Lot
Come down to the Nenana lot and help out with the builds that the various participating clubs and organizations are working on! Safety gear will be provided while supply lasts, but bring your own if you have it!
10 a.m. ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
Nanooks Cross-Country Forest Frenzy Race

Location: North Campus Trail System
Bring your cowbells and posters to cheer on your Nanooks as they race against our in-state rivals, the Anchorage Seawolves. Students can join in a 3k community fun run before the races. Afterward, stop by the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Nanooks Food Truck Rally!
11 a.m.—8 p.m. ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Nanooks Food Truck Rally

Location: Patty Center
Celebrate the start of the athletics season! Enjoy good food and cheer on your Nanooks volleyball team at 7 PM at the Patty Center. 10% of food sales are donated to your Nanooks volleyball team and support their season.
7 p.m. ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
Denali State Bank Ice Block Classic Volleyball Tournament

Location: Patty Center
Cheer on your Nanooks as they play against Rockhurst University in the thrilling conclusion of our volleyball tournament! Wear your blue and gold and sit in the student section to rally behind your Nanooks! Students get in free with their PolarExpress ID!
9 p.m ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ time
Starvation Gulch Fires

Location: Nenana Parking Lot
Bring your friends, and head down to the Nenana lot to watch the Starvation Gulch fires get lit, enjoy the music, and check out all of the Starvation Gulch festivities!

Starvation Gulch history

By: Forest Puha

It's an annual celebration — a way to ease new students into campus life. At times, a fierce competition of honor between campus dormitories, it's also a living story of the incredible odds the University has faced and overcome. It's Starvation Gulch.

Founded in 1923, Starvation Gulch was an inspiration from Charles E. Bunnell, the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥' first president. Students built a mock town to serve as an entertainment facility by day and fuel for enormous bonfires by night. Bunnell wanted the fires to symbolize the passing of the torch of knowledge.

UAF students nicknamed the town "Starvation Gulch," an ostensible poke at the pioneers who first settled in Fairbanks. It quickly became the official name of the annual festival and has served since then as an icebreaker of sorts to introduce new students into the college fold. During the Starvation Gulch of 1923, students could throw friends into jail, get divorced for a buck and enjoy the other hundred forms of UAF entertainment. Since then, the contest has taken on unique and historic forms.

In 1956, drunken brawls caused UAF president Ernest Patty to pass a campus-wide alcohol ban. Enraged students buried beer bottles outside Constitution Hall in a mock funeral wake, marking the burial ground with the infamous 'Tradition Stone.'

The Stone, a 400-pound slab of concrete emblazoned with a bronze plaque reading "Here Lies Tradition, 1957" to mark the anniversary of the ban, became a symbol of rebellion against the campus prohibition. UAF students continually reach new heights in stealing the stone from each other, and the stone never stays in the same place for more than a year.

During the 16-year-long ban on alcohol, changes were made to the event's activities — making giant towns out of wood was outlawed, only piles of wood could be made. Broomball became the official sport of the Starvation Gulch festival.

Today, safety comes first with our UAF administration. Height restrictions discourage people from building 75-foot-high stockpiles. Instead, trophies are given to the most creative wooden sculpture. Spectators can no longer roast hot dogs around the bonfire. Students may no longer discharge shotguns into the air to dissuade wood thieves, as was common in 1948. Instead, speed and resourcefulness see contestants through to victory.

Despite the dramatic changes in the celebration, no one can deny the power of a 79-year-old ceremony. Starvation Gulch is not simply the passing of knowledge to a new generation — Starvation Gulch is UAF history.