Midnight sun: Like much of West Tromsø summer here is one uninterrupted 1656-hour span of daylight. Photo / Getty Images
Midnight sun: Like much of West Tromsø summer here is one uninterrupted 1656-hour span of daylight. Photo / Getty Images
What time do you call this?
Locals of the Norwegian town of Sommarøy want to do away with concept of time. The situated on an island that roughly translates as 'Summer Island', the town is so far north that from May 18 to July 26 this part of Norway enjoys uninterrupteddaylight.
Like much of West Tromsø summer here is one uninterrupted 1656-hour span of daylight.
Going without night for a whole 69 days the island's 300 occupants have developed to stay up all hours.
"There's constantly daylight, and we act accordingly," Sommarøy local Kjell Ove Hveding told CNN.
Pace of life: On Sommaroy you can spot children playing soccer, people painting their houses at 2am. Photo / getty Images
"In the middle of the night, which city folk might call '2 a.m.,' you can spot children playing soccer, people painting their houses or mowing their lawns, and teens going for a swim."
Locals have banded together to petition the Norwegian parliament to do away with time all together.
With the town reliant on very seasonal industries such as tourism and fishing, the Sommarøy locals want to create a time-free zone.
Hveding says it will give more flexibility to schools and local businesses.
"To many of us, getting this in writing would simply mean formalising something we have been practicing for generations," he said.
Northern Lights: If summer is a marathon day, the winter night is equally long and unbroken. Photo / Getty Images
The bridge to the island is covered in abandoned wrist watches and clock faces – reminding visitors to be patient, there is no 'conventional time' on this island.
The island's quirky time-bending appeal has made it a poster child of the Norwegian tourism board. Visitors come from around the world to witness the "land of the midnight sun."
The eerie uninterrupted daylight seems almost supernatural and has inspired writers and holidaymakers for decades.
The fabled northern summer still has appeal for modern audiences, as the setting of the Ari Astor's horror film "Midsommar," about a group of Americans who lured in by the night-less north.
We trust a stay in Sommarøy will be less "Wicker Man" and more "The Land That Time Forgot."
For a town that never sleeps, the pace of life here seems refreshingly laid back.
