Habanos S.A. Says Festival del Habano XXIV Will Take Place Feb. 26-March 1, 2024

The Festival del Habano XXIV will take place from Feb. 26 to March 1, 2024 in Havana, Cuba.

Held annually in Havana, the Festival del Habano serves as the marquee event for the Cuban cigar world as most of Habanos S.A.’s distributors attend the event along with some of the more prominent Cuban cigar retailers as well as consumers and media. Beyond the formal list of events, many private parties—both formal and informal—are hosted along with countless meetings, including with some of Habanos S.A.’s suppliers and other partners.

Historically, attendees have been able to attend educational seminars, visit Cuban cigar factories and tobacco farms, see and purchase products at a trade show, learn how to roll cigars in a class taught by a working cigar roller and participate in the International Habanos World Challenge contest.

Habanos S.A., the global distributor of Cuban cigars, also uses the event to announce the past year’s financial performance, provide an outlook for the upcoming year and to formally show off upcoming new Cuban cigars.

In addition, there are usually a number of formal dinners dedicated to specific cigars or releases, as well as the final night’s activities, which include an extremely popular auction of elaborate humidors. In 2023, the six humidors that were auctioned off generated a record €11.22 million, roughly $11.89 million USD at the time of the auction, in combined sales. This shattered the Cuban cigar conglomerate’s previous auction record of €4.27 million ($4.71 million at that time) in 2020. In addition, a Cohiba humidor was sold for €4.2 million ($4.45)—itself almost equalling the entire 2020 auction—making it the most expensive humidor ever sold at auction.

Of note, Procigar—the Dominican Republic’s most prominent cigar festival—is scheduled to begin the week prior to the Festival del Habano XXIV on Feb. 18, 2024.