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

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.

Haines brewer Paul Wheeler and other Chilkat Valley residents said it’s a sign of declining Canadian tourism numbers at events.

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 the brewery was still planning to attend the festival, scheduled for May 22. Winterlong Brewing staff could not be reached for comment.

Wheeler said he noticed a decline in visitors to the Haines brewery last year. “We were 30% down here at the brewery,” he said. “Our friendly neighbor won’t come to visit us.”

President Donald Trump last year insisted Canada become a state, giving up its sovereignty as a nation. He also has criticized Canadian government leaders and imposed tariffs on goods from Canada.

In previous years, registration and ticket sales for events in Haines, an almost five-hour drive from Whitehorse, in Canada’s Yukon Territory — has been a metric for measuring tourism numbers.

Southeast Alaska State Fair director Jessie Sanders refused to share how many tickets have been sold for Brewfest events so far. 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 attendance at both Brew Fest and the Kluane to Chilkat International Bike Relay were down approximately 20% in 2025 compared to previous years.

A decline in registration by Canadians also has hit the fifth annual Chilkat Challenge Triathlon, which is scheduled for May 23 in Haines, before Brewfest festivities are set to begin. Steering committee member Gershon Cohen said, so far, 35 people have registered. Last year’s triathlon had 60 to 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 still, obviously, some tensions between our country and theirs, which it’s unfortunate that it spills over into something like this,” he said.