In 2017 Cigar City announced that the Ybor City Cigar Festival is back to its original name, the Cigar Heritage Festival. The was name originated by Tampa's most famous radio personality, Mr. Jack Harris of WFLA back in 1996. Harris wanted to bring back the cigar festival from its heyday of the 1930s cigar festival called Viva La Verbena, Tampa's Original Cigar Festival. This four-day event included a cigar making contest, the rolling of a world-record-setting cigar, a cigar factory open house where members of the community were invited to tour local factories, and a daytime parade that drew over 16,000 people. It was a celebration put on by the cigar industry to thank its workers and the Tampa community.
From 1996 - 2013 the Cigar Heritage Festival has passed through a few hands starting with Clear Channel's radio station WFLA and its widely popular radio personality Jack Harris. By the early 2000s, they passed the torch down to the Ybor City Museum Society. In 2014, the Ybor City Museum Society had to make a hard discussion as to continue with the Cigar Heritage Festival or place their focus on their new project, Tampa's first baseball museum located in Ybor City! They decided to move forward with the baseball museum, handing the torch to the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce in 2014. After a one year attempt by the Ybor City Chamber, it became evident that with new projects on the horizon they did not have the staff to continue with such a large event. This is where Cigar City Magazine's event making expertise as well as publishing Tampa Bay's only history magazine stepped in! It's no secret they have become known for providing some of the best events in town like the Tampa Mafia Tours, Cigars and Stars, Bada Bing, Glitter & Doom, Old Hollywood, and the originator of the Tampa Cigar Bash! So, back in 2015, Cigar City Magazinewww.cigarcitymagazine.com decided to step in to save this much-wanted cigar festival and using the name, the Ybor City Cigar Festival. The event was a success, but they needed to add a few more things to make it bigger and better. In 2016 they did just that!
In 2016, Cigar City Magazine knocked the Ybor City Cigar Festival outta the park with nearly 10,000 people in attendance making it the largest attended cigar festival in the world! With the leading cigar industry families in attendance, Arturo Fuente Cigar Company and J.C. Newman Cigar Company helped drive -in cigar aficionados, Ybor supporters, local families, history enthusiasts, and out-of town visitors from all around the world!. The cigar festival carried the "BEST" cigars from around the world, and cigar aficionados were able to find the most famous and the rarest cigars along with some "Boutique" cigars that they had never experienced!
A free family friendly event, but please remember there will be cigar smoking throughout the park.
Dogs are welcome in the park as long as on a leash at all times. Please do not allow your dog urinate on the street, tents or inside the brick/cemented park area. Please use the back of the parks tree and dirt area along 8th Avenue. Don't forget to bring your doggie poop bags!
Cigar Heritage Festival, Inc. is a nonprofit organization incorporated under the laws of the State of Florida. The purpose of this organization is to promote and create events that seek to support the general social, economic and cultural well-being of Ybor City and the City of Tampa.
From 1996 - 2013 the Cigar Heritage Festival has passed through a few hands starting with Clear Channel's radio station WFLA and its widely popular radio personality Jack Harris. By the early 2000s, they passed the torch down to the Ybor City Museum Society. In 2014, the Ybor City Museum Society had to make a hard discussion as to continue with the Cigar Heritage Festival or place their focus on their new project, Tampa's first baseball museum located in Ybor City! They decided to move forward with the baseball museum, handing the torch to the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce in 2014. After a one year attempt by the Ybor City Chamber, it became evident that with new projects on the horizon they did not have the staff to continue with such a large event. This is where Cigar City Magazine's event making expertise as well as publishing Tampa Bay's only history magazine stepped in! It's no secret they have become known for providing some of the best events in town like the Tampa Mafia Tours, Cigars and Stars, Bada Bing, Glitter & Doom, Old Hollywood, and the originator of the Tampa Cigar Bash! So, back in 2015, Cigar City Magazinewww.cigarcitymagazine.com decided to step in to save this much-wanted cigar festival and using the name, the Ybor City Cigar Festival. The event was a success, but they needed to add a few more things to make it bigger and better. In 2016 they did just that!
In 2016, Cigar City Magazine knocked the Ybor City Cigar Festival outta the park with nearly 10,000 people in attendance making it the largest attended cigar festival in the world! With the leading cigar industry families in attendance, Arturo Fuente Cigar Company and J.C. Newman Cigar Company helped drive -in cigar aficionados, Ybor supporters, local families, history enthusiasts, and out-of town visitors from all around the world!. The cigar festival carried the "BEST" cigars from around the world, and cigar aficionados were able to find the most famous and the rarest cigars along with some "Boutique" cigars that they had never experienced!
A free family friendly event, but please remember there will be cigar smoking throughout the park.
Dogs are welcome in the park as long as on a leash at all times. Please do not allow your dog urinate on the street, tents or inside the brick/cemented park area. Please use the back of the parks tree and dirt area along 8th Avenue. Don't forget to bring your doggie poop bags!
Cigar Heritage Festival, Inc. is a nonprofit organization incorporated under the laws of the State of Florida. The purpose of this organization is to promote and create events that seek to support the general social, economic and cultural well-being of Ybor City and the City of Tampa.
Mayor Bob Buckhorn and the City of Tampa gives a Proclamation making
November 19 2016, Carlos Arturo Fuente, Sr. Day !
November 19 2016, Carlos Arturo Fuente, Sr. Day !
Mayor Bob Buckhorn and the City of Tampa gives a Proclamation making
November 5, 2015 Ybor City Cigar Festival Day!
November 5, 2015 Ybor City Cigar Festival Day!
2017 Cigar Heritage Festival & Carlito Fuente, Jr.
2017 Cigar Heritage Festival in Ybor City, Florida
2017 Cigar Heritage Festival-sponsors Maserati of Tampa & Harley-Davidson of Tampa
Check out Ybor Flavors Show about the 2015 Cigar Heritage Festival!
2015 Ybor City Cigar Festival Commercial
2015 Ybor City Cigar Festival covered on channel 8 WFLA
Check out the Tampa Tribune's write up about the 2015 Ybor City Cigar Festival
YBOR CITY — Under a unseasonably hot sun and amid a haze of tobacco smoke, cigar aficionados gathered Saturday to buy and sell the best the Cigar City has to offer.
Hundreds of smokers–including Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn–came to the Ybor City Cigar Festival on Saturday afternoon at Centennial Park.
“I am a cigar smoker; I’m proud of it,” Buckhorn told the crowd before proclaiming the day Ybor City Cigar Festival Day. “They don’t let me smoke in my office. You would think that I would be the mayor, I can do whatever I want. I can’t.”
The cigar industry played a fundamental role in the settlement and growth of early Tampa, Buckhorn said.
“This is a town that was settled by Spanish, Cuban and Italian immigrants who came to Tampa, Florida, largely to roll cigars. That is who we are. Cigars are in our DNA,” he said. “We should be proud of it. Obviously we do this in moderation, but it is part of our history.”
Stores from throughout the Tampa Bay region set up booths to sell cigars, and rollers demonstrated how cigars are made.
Lisa Figueredo, who organized the event, said the cigar industry is under attack from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration which wants to place regulations on cigars similar to those for other tobacco products. Festivals like Saturday’s show federal officials and others how important cigars are to the culture of Tampa, which long ago was dubbed “Cigar City”.
“This is our heritage, our culture, our history and Tampa was built because of the cigar industry,” Figueredo said. “You can’t take that away.”
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