No Better Way to Celebrate the 4th of July Than by Launching Cars Off a Cliff

Fireworks are a part of all celebrations, whether they include a concert, a BBQ in the back garden or a picnic with the family. In fact, it’s almost as if you can’t think of celebrating this special day without a firework display.

Unless you live in Alaska and the 4th of July is smack in the middle of midnight sun season. Having a firework display when the sun is shining in the sky (in the middle of the night) is no fun and, to boot, a complete waste of money.

So this small community in Alaska has come up with a better, perhaps cheaper idea: crash cars by having them launch off a 300-foot (91-meter) cliff. The cars are all battered and nearly destroyed, but still have a functional engine, which is paramount to getting them to launch. They’re not manned, so no one is at any risk during this stunt.

According to videos posted to the How to Alaska channel, this particular Independence Day celebration has been taking place for at least 4 years, including the most recent 2020 edition. The location is Glacierview, Alaska: it’s not technically a town and you will most likely not find it on a map. It’s a community / hub near Matanuska Glacier, in the Mat-Su Valley.

This year, as the video at the bottom of the page seems to indicate, the crowd got bigger and safety measures included excavating a pond at the bottom of the cliff, so as to prevent any wreck that may make it down this far to run into the crowd nearby. Old cars, including sedans, trucks and SUVs, were launched to the cheering of the crowd below and on the ground, and at the end of it, everyone came to inspect the carnage up close and personal.

Celebrating anything through destruction of property seems like an odd idea, but given the fact that these cars would most likely be sent to the crusher, where’s the harm in giving them one last chance at eternal glory? And deliver entertainment in the process.