CigarFest 2010–Main Event

May 1st, 2010–Smokey Butts and I attended the CigarFest 2010 Main Event from 1-7 pm, at Split Rock Resort, in Harmony, PA.  Smokey Butts, I, and 2,500 of our closest friends enjoyed an afternoon of, well, “Good Friends, Good Drink, and Good Cigars” at CigarFest 2010.  While last year, Smokey Butts and I had VIP passes, this year we purchased general admission tickets.  We stood in line for roughly an hour hanging out with a few gents from Allentown, PA.  While in line, Cigars International (CI) peddled CigarFest 2010 T-shirts in their typical aggressive manner by having models wear the shirts.  For $20 bucks, herfers could buy the shirts off the backs of the CI models.  Smokey Butts and I really wanted the shirt so we sheepishly purchased the shirts, had a photo taken with the model, and wandered into the event.  While entering event, we received a bag with cigars, lighter, and other goodies, worth well over the cost of the $100 ticket.  We also received a humidor, cigars, and cutter for wearing a CigarFest 2010 shirt we had previously purchased.  Finally, we received a coupon book to obtain free cigars at each of the vendors.

After entering the event, we avoided the CAO booth which had a line with about a 100 people in it and headed to the less traveled areas.  We wandered around for the next couple of hours exchanging our coupons for free cigars.  Our take was at least 30 cigars, once again making the $100 ticket a cheap price to pay for so many premium cigars.

The vendors ranged from an old man sitting alone with a stack of cigars (cigar manufacturer names eliminated to protect the old man although I doubt he knows how to access the internet) to elaborately decorated booths with multiple reps.  Some resorted to the old booth babe routine with C-grade models handing out cigars.  The Man O’ War babes were present handing out cigars and taking photos with lusty old herfers.  Even the Cigars for Troops booth had a couple of booth babes dressed in tight fitting stripper military uniforms.  But mostly, the booths had unnamed cigar reps and cigar stars–Rocky Patel, Nick Perdomo, Tim Ozgener (CAO), for example, living the cigar rock star life shaking hands, signing posters and shirts, and handing out their best cigars.

A personal favorite of mine was getting my picture taken with Rocky Patel.  Rocky Patel makes one of my favorite cigars and I am a groupie for him and his cigars.

CI had their own booths at a couple of locations selling CigarFest 2010 packs of a number of cigar manufacturers.  The prices were fabulous, saving around 50% off the normal price.  The CI booth also sold CigarFest and CI hats, shirts, cutters, and other cigar paraphernalia.

For those who like to eat and drink, CI provided BBQ to eat–links, pulled pork, chicken, beans, potato salad, and cole slaw.  Also, a number of vendors provide samples of beer and alcohol.  Xikar was kind enough to provide free water bottles to all.  Sadly, as with last year, the alcohol ran out early and the beer ran out shortly thereafter.

The capstone of the event was the CigarFest raffle.  CI raffled over $100,000 in cigars and cigar merchandise.  Smokey Butts was one of the lucky winners and describes his prize in his blog.  In addition to the cigars and cigar merchandise, CI raffled off a Cinco Vegas Jeep and a Cinco Vegas Polaris ATV.

CigarFest 2010 was a fabulous event and all dedicated herfers should attend at least one.  I’ll post a few CigarFest photos in another blog entry.

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