Best Cigar Prices Hosting Smoke-onos in May

On May 18, 2024, Best Cigar Prices will host the first-ever Smoke-onos, a multi-vendor event that the Best, Pa.-retailer hopes will become one of the largest annual events in the country.

The event will be held at Best Cigar Prices & Pub in Drums, Pa.,  the store’s headquarters and warehouse.

Ticketholders will be given a book of more than 30 tickets, that will each be redeemable for cigars. In addition, ticketholders will get a travel humidor, ashtray, lighter and other swag. Best Cigar Prices will also offer discounts on cigars during the events. A total of 700 tickets will be offered for sale; regular tickets are priced at $175 and VIP tickets are priced at $250.

The retailer has put together a lengthy list of cigar industry figures that will be in attendance, including:

• Justin Andrews (Diesel/STG)
• Cory Bappert (Oliva)
• Rene Castañeda (Villiger Cigars North America)
• Nimish Desai (Rocky Patel)
• Jonathan Drew (Drew Estate)
• Erik Espinosa (Espinosa Premium Cigars)
• Abe Flores (PDR Cigars)
• Michael Giannini (Quality Importers Trading Co.)
• Pedro Gomez (Drew Estate)
• ​Michael Herklots (Ferio Tego)
• Robert & Sharon Holt (Southern Draw)
• Manuel Inoa (La Aurora)
• Tom Lazuka (Asylum/CLE)
• Rafael Nodal (Aging Room/Altadis U.S.A.)
• Dean Parsons (Zander-Greg/Epic)
• Rocky Patel (Rocky Patel)
• Nick Perdomo (Perdomo)
• Terence Reilly (AGANORSA Leaf)
• George Rico (Gran Habano)
• Bradley Rubin (Alec Bradley/STG)
• Sean Williams (Cohiba/STG)

In addition, there are smaller events like golf, a Friday night party and a Sunday brunch.

If all of that sounds familiar, it’s quite similar to the popular CIGARfest Mega-Herf concept that Cigars International, one of Best Cigar Prices’ competitors, hosted for years.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, CIGARfest was the largest consumer event in the cigar industry: a multi-day event that was highlighted by two days of large consumer events held in the Poconos in early May. That multi-day event was highlighted by a large-scale consumer event where consumers would be given a coupon book to pick up cigars from different vendors. In addition, raffles, live music, food and drink sales, charitable drives and discounted cigar sales took place during the event. CIGARfest would sell out more than 3,000 tickets for each of the two days it would take place.

However, the 2020 and 2021 events were canceled due to the COVID-19 lockdown and, in 2022, Cigars International announced that it would stop hosting the singular large-scale event. Instead, CIGARfest now includes different event programs at its stores in Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Laura Barlau, who for years organized and served as one of the hosts of CIGARfest, is the director of purchasing, wholesale, and events for Best Cigar Prices.

While there are a lot of similarities between Smoke-onos and CIGARfest, there are some notable differences. Best Cigar Prices is hosting Smoke-onos on-site, with plans to offer ticketholders tours of its facilities throughout the day. One other difference, while many consumers would tailgate outside of CIGARfest, Best Cigar Prices is not allowing tailgating.