A regular favourite for many Yukoners will be missing from the lineup of music festivals this summer.

Organizers of the annual Alsek Music Festival in Haines Junction are calling it quits for 2009.

"We're just burned out," Bruce Binder, who served as last year's festival director, said in an interview this morning from his Haines Junction home.

Binder has been part of the festival for more than a decade, serving in various roles on the board for the event.

Others have been involved in organizing the Haines Junction festival since its inception about 16 years ago, he pointed out.

After last year's festival, Binder and other long-time organizers said they would likely retire from the event.

When no one came forward to become involved with making the event happen, the board opted to cancel it for the year, Binder explained.

It came as a surprise to Binder that no businesses in the community wanted to help out beyond providing monetary support, given the number of people who flow into the village to take in the concerts over the festival weekend, bringing money into the town's hotels, shops and so on.

"It's going to have quite an impact on businesses," he said of the festival's hiatus.

The work involves co-ordinating 140 volunteers. In the last few years, fund-raising efforts have had to increase as the price tag for hosting the festival has as well.

Along with that has been a rowdier crowd visiting to take in the event.

"Things have been getting more and more out of hand," Binder said. "It's not the way we'd like to see the festival continue."

While most of the fund-raising is done through the sale of alcohol during the shows, the cans and bottles of alcohol left over after the weekend are evidence that people are bringing in their own beverages, he said, noting the festival serves its alcohol in plastic cups.

With the majority of festival-goers in their 20s and 30s, Binder said, mosh pits have found their way into the festival and there's always "a couple of idiots" who feel the need to push and shove.

The cost of the festival has jumped to about $14,000 in recent years, with the higher price of renting a tent and security.

"It all snowballed," he said.

While there's an interest from some in Whitehorse to make the festival happen, Binder said there would still have to be someone based in Haines Junction to co-ordinate things in the community.

Though the festival won't go ahead this year, Binder said there's some talk of it coming back in 2010, with more of a family-oriented focus if new organizers can be found.

As the Alsek festival ends, at least for this year, the other major music festival in Haines Junction will continue, with the Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Festival slated for June 12-14.

The two festivals had been held on the same weekend, but last year were staged on separate dates.

President and artistic director Bob Hayes said he doesn't expect the bluegrass festival will be impacted in any major way by the disappearance of Alsek this year.

During the bluegrass event, hotels were all booked last year, he pointed out.

"Our program is individual," he said.

While some concert-goers commented last year that they enjoyed the vibrancy of having the two festivals at the same time in Haines Junction, Hayes said, others enjoyed the quieter setting of last year's bluegrass festival.