Last night, the grand Dominican tobacco festival kicked off. Procigar 2026 began with the Warm Up Night, an informal cocktail party on the rooftop of the Residence Inn hotel, primarily serving as a first meeting point for festival attendees. Aficionados, shop owners, distributors, manufacturers, fellow journalists… many of them longtime friends, together again for fun and cigars.
Of course, guests were welcomed with a bag of cigars and served food and drinks, while Abe Flores’ band, Blue Star Collectives, provided the entertainment. Most of the manufacturers were present, greeting and welcoming all the participants. Official figures for this year are not yet available. In 2025, more than 800 people from 40 different countries took part in one or another of the Procigar activities.
The president of Procigar, Litto Gómez, officially presented the festival and, in a very brief speech, predicted an intense and fun week for everyone present: “Welcome to Procigar 2026,” he said, “we have prepared a program for everyone to have fun, including myself.”
After the Warm Up Night, some continued the party at the Saga restaurant in Santiago. Although it is not an official activity, it is becoming a tradition year after year. In any case, it’s the first night of Procigar, and it’s best not to prolong it too much or the full week will become hard and demanding. There are still three tours to factories, tobacco fields, and processing plants, and three major nighttime events, especially the dinner on Thursday at the “Monumento de los Héroes de la Restauración”, the White Party, which goes on well into the early hours.
The Procigar Festival is a big party, but there’s much more to it. It’s a good idea to rest a little, although some seem to prefer resting… when they return home.
