The K.C. Cigar Fest

A few weeks back we attended the First Annual Kansas City Cigar Festival. This was the first time we had attended a Cigar Festival and we had a great time.



The event was sponsored by Fidel’s Cigar Shop in Westport and took place in the “Back Yard” at the Beaumount Club in Westport. Tickets were 45.00 dollars in advanced and while this sounded like a lot of money it turned out to not only a great way to spend an afternoon, but a great value as well.



Included in with you ticket you gained entry to the festival, two drink tickets for a beverage of your choice, a package of premium cigars valued at around 30.00 dollars (maybe more) and a raffle ticket. They held many, may raffles and the prizes ranged from ashtrays to a CAO electric guitar valued at 600.00 dollars.

Contest were held for the fastest smoke, best smoke rings and longest ash. The fastest smoke was hilarious to watch as the contestants all had to use the official cigar which was a Oliva Gigante(8 X 52). The winner smoked this giant down to the band in 2 minutes and 48 seconds! I can not say I witnessed this but I heard a rumor he was not feeling all that well later that day.


Contestants in the Longest Ash Contest, Nice Ash!

The event also included a DJ, BBQ and many cigar vendors.

With your drink tickets you could get a free glass as long as you were drinking Scotch and they had many top of the line Scotches. I drank Balvenie Double Wood all day and ended up with four glasses.

Graycliff Cigar Company had master cigar roller, Abel Laura, in attendance. If you have never watched a cigar roller it is quit a treat. The cigars were fantastic and was not the first time I had the please of seeing Abel in action or enjoying one of his fine cigars. Rumor has it they contained Cuban tobacco, but I can not confirm this.


Abel Larua doing what he does so well

The Cigar Rights of America was in attendance so we both took the opportunity to become members and if you are a cigar smoker you should consider becoming a member as this organization does an awful lot to protect our rights as smokers, not only with the laws but also with taxes.


The Gang

The weather was not very cooperative that day and the even was shorted to four hours, but as consolation everyone received another gift bag of cigars.




Our Stash, arraigned only as someone who has been drinking Scotch all day can do

We left the event with 22 cigars, 4 glasses and great memories and we are looking forward to this event next year.

Cheers

Comments

  1. Nice write up, I was searching for pics of the event and was bummed to see the site was down. I would have been in a pic of the gang had the contest not been going on. It was nice to meet you.

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