Editorial: Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival - 2015

The Rocky Mountain Cigar festival is always a great event with good people, and awesome vendors. It has been growing steadily since it’s inception in 2011. When I attended in 2013 my only complaint was that the venue was too small (Millennium Hotel in Boulder, CO), thankfully the year after the moved it to the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield, CO. Unfortunately I was deathly ill last year and wasn’t able to attend and see the new venue. This year I was feeling great and ready to smoke, and it didn’t disappoint. Joined by our panelist Jack, we conquered almost the entire festival.

First things first, check out the fly by overview of the entire festival in the video below.

Now that you’ve seen the overview, let’s talk about the nitty gritty. The venue this year (and last year) is such a vast improvement over the first years, I can’t even tell you. At the millennium hotel, the event had outgrown the space by the last year they held is there, and it was all bumping elbows and spilling beer and/or cocktails. And god forbid it rained, everyone was fighting over the same 100 sq ft of shelter. This year, it was very spread out and didn’t feel cramped at all, except for sometimes in a popular booth, but that’s not anyone’s fault. There are two main areas, the pavilion, and the stage, with a pathway in-between with booths all along it.

Most of the big brands in the cigar industry were present, with a few notable absences like AJ Fernandez and Davidoff. Most of the booths had some kind of sampler pack or box that was at a special rate and a selection of cigars just for shows. A few companies has boxes with special Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival branding on it, which I personally appreciate the extra effort and have an easier time letting go of some cash for. La Flor Dominicana actually had a customer blend and box made for this festival. I bought a box, so I’ll do a quick review soon to let you know how they stack up. That’s probably the biggest advantage of this festival over others – the ability to actually purchase cigars while there. Lots of festivals have a ticket system, where you have to go around to each booth and collect your sample and everyone gets the same. Here, you get your grab bag with 20+ cigars in it, and then you can go around and pick up a pack or a box of something special or something that wasn’t in the bag. Lots of companies even have special pricing on their regular lines. Check out the slide show below of all the booths and festivities.

Aerial View

Drew Estate Party

Drew Estate Party at Havana Manor in Longmont

The Dojo

Jonathan Drew at Drew Estate Party in Longmont

Drew Estate Booth

Xikar Booth

Whiskey Barrel Coffee Booth

Odyssey Brewery

Joyful’s Cigar Art Booth

Crazy Mountain Brewery Booth

Jonathan Drew at Drew Estate Booth

CLE Booth

Breckenridge Distillery Booth

Nat Sherman Booth

Veritas Booth

La Flor Dominicana Booth John Carney and Tony Gomez

PDR Booth

PDR Booth Abe Flores on Right

RMCF Stage Area

RMCF Stage

Oskar Blues Booth

E.P. Carrillo Booth

Miami Cigar & Co. Booth

Leccia Tobacco Booth & Sam Leccia

Leccia Tobacco Booth

Fratello Cigars Booth & Omar De Frias

Rocky Patel Cigars Booth

Padron Cigars Booth

Perdomo Booth

My Father Booth

Boutique Blends Carlos & Rafael Nodal

Quesada

Crowd at Peak Time

Altadis Booth

Camacho & Matt Booth

Smoking Jacket for Dogs

CZ Cigars Booth

Silvercoin Tequila Booth

Fratello Cigars Booth

Ventura Cigars Booth & Kevin Newman

Ventura Cigars Booth & Our Good Friend Kevin Newman

Ventura Cigars Booth & Kevin Newman

Notable Booths

While we enjoyed all of the booths, there were a few standouts worth noting, most of them pictured above. We had never heard of Silvercoin Tequila before, it is delicious, and affordable, go buy some. Whiskey Barrel Coffee has been around for a while making delicious coffee (which we have reviewed on this site) but this year they had a cold brew on Nitro. Yes Nitro. I don’t know when or where you’ll be able to find it, but do it, it’s amazing. Joyful’s Cigar Art was super cool, she will make you a custom picture, check out her website here. And last, but certainly not least, Sam Leccia rolled us each a Lumpy Sanchez… check out the video below.

Overall

This was a great event, and I love how it’s evolved and I hope it keeps growing at this pace and will become a national draw. If you live within driving distance, and haven’t been, go next year, you will not regret. Everything was run efficiently, safely, and everybody had fun.

I also want to send a thanks to Danny at the Rocky Mountain Cigar Festival for allowing us to put our banner up and getting approval for us to fly to the drone.