For second year, Canadian participation dips in Haines events

Revelers dance during Whitehorse band Speed Control’s set at Beerfest, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (Will Steinfeld/Chilkat Valley News)

By Lizzy Hahn

Chilkat Valley News

At least one Canadian brewery, Yukon Brewing, is skipping this year’s Great Alaska Craft Beer and Home Brew Festival.

Yukon Brewing marketing coordinator Kateryna Osypova said the reason was simple: “We are not sure if we can guarantee the safety of our employees,” Osypova said, pointing out the ongoing tension between the U.S. and Canada.

Brewer Paul Wheeler and local Chilkat Valley residents say it’s a sign of declining Canadian tourism numbers at local events that they expect to see continue for a second year.

Wheeler, who owns Haines Brewing, said in previous years three Whitehorse breweries – Yukon Brewing, Woodcutter’s Blanket and Winterlong Brewing – would typically come to Brew Fest.

Woodcutter’s Blanket co-founder Scott Shailer said that the brewery was still planning to attend the festival. Winterlong Brewing staff were traveling and could not be reached by press time.

Wheeler said he has noticed a decline in visitors to the Haines brewery last year.

“We were 30 percent down here at the brewery,” he said. “Our friendly neighbor won’t come to visit us.”

In previous years, registration and ticket sales for local events has been a metric for measuring local tourism numbers.

However, this year Southeast Alaska State Fair director Jessie Sanders refused to share how many tickets have been sold for Brewfest events so far and would not provide details about how many breweries had registered. He said he did not want to share numbers for fear that they would be “interpreted by some audiences as a direct response to the current political climate.”

According to Haines tourism director Rebecca Hylton, Brew Fest typically sells around 1,700 general admission tickets. She said that attendance at both Brew Fest and the Kluane to Chilkat International Bike Relay were down approximately 20 percent in 2025 compared to previous years.

However, registration has also opened for the fifth annual Chilkat Challenge Triathlon, which is scheduled for the morning of May 23, before Brewfest festivities are set to begin. Steering committee member Gershon Cohen said that, so far, 35 people have registered. Last year’s triathlon had 60-65 participants.

“We would have had more, but we had more than 20 people cancel registrations who were from Canada, because of all the political craziness,” Cohen said.

There are currently seven Canadians signed up for the event, which is fewer than in previous years when Cohen said a third or even half of race participants were from Whitehorse or Haines Junction.

Most of the people who have registered thus far are from around Alaska, including Fairbanks and Sitka.

“There are still, obviously some tensions between our country and theirs, which it’s unfortunate that it spills over into something like this,” Cohen said.

Wheeler echoed Cohen, saying “It’s just going to be less people coming to town, supporting… any of the events Haines puts on.”

He said he hopes the Canadian breweries return; it might just take a little while.

• This article originally appeared in the Chilkat Valley News.