White Night: A Festive Evening At ProCigar In The Dominican Republic
The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” meets Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” all sifted through an audio mélange of Caribbean salsa and merengue blaring from the loudspeakers. The music was non-stop as the more than 1,000 attendees of ProCigar’s White Party dinner danced and drank into the wee hours. Dinner was served too.
The White Party is a tradition that has endured throughout the 17 years of the Dominican Republic’s annual cigar festival, which happened last week. The venue is the Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración, an imposing monolith on top of Santiago de los Caballeros’ highest point that celebrates Dominican independence in the 19th century. The dress code? White, white, white. Ladies in revealing white gowns in a wide array of elegance and fashion. Men in white guayaberas or just fancy white suits; white shoes a must. The monument’s terrace was decorated in striking red chandeliers with the tables arranged around the dance floor.
The White Party is the second night of the festival in Santiago and is one of the social events of the year for the city, with politicians, including Mayor Ulises Rodriguez and many local businessmen, as well the hundreds of cigar lovers from around the world in attendance. “Tonight shows the power of the cigar industry here,” says Rodriguez. “It is a family. A community.”
ProCigar is the biggest celebration of the Dominican cigar industry every year. The 12 companies that comprise the ProCigar collective include, among others, Artruro Fuente Cigar Co., Casa Carillo, Tabadom (Davidoff), General Cigar Co., La Flor Dominicana, Quesada Cigars and Tabacalera de Garcia. As an organization, ProCigar represents the bulk of the nearly 150 million Dominican cigars exported to the United States annually.
During the opening night on Wednesday at the Parque Central, the new president of ProCigar, Litto Gomez of La Flor Dominicana, tells the crowd of about 800 that the cigar makers were his friends and his competitors: “They fight for quality. They spend days and weeks creating blends to make you guys happy and to try to make the best cigars in the world. And they do.” He says that the festival’s guests had come from more than 40 countries around the world. “It’s a beautiful thing when we get together to celebrate Dominican cigars,” Gomez says.
The event began Sunday, February 16 at Casa de Campo in La Romana on the country’s south coast. The stay there included a visit to one of the world’s largest cigar factories, Tabacalera de Garcia. Activities included night golf, a trip out to a nearby island with cigar seminars and a dinner at the unique Altos de Chavón—a convincing replica of an Italian hillside village—celebrating the 150th anniversary of Romeo y Julieta.
After shifting to Santiago on Wednesday, there was a wide choice of visits to the various cigar maker’s farms and factories, a blending seminar and the gala dinners each night.
Renette and Timothy Fairley, of the Thick Ash Cigar lounge and store in Newnan, Georgia, tell Cigar Aficionado that it was their first ProCigar, as they dug into a roasted pig and a big Tomahawk steak at one of the first day’s events at La Flor Dominicana. “We’re so glad we came. We sell a lot of cigars but it will be so much easier to sell them now that we have met the people and have seen that they do.”
See coverage from Gordon Mott for more on the ProCigar Festival.
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