One of the Habano Festival’s gala dinners, in a file photo. / Habanos S.A.

Farewell to the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue the event brings into Cuban state coffers each year.

By 14ymedio

HAVANA TIMES – The Habano Festival, which was postponed indefinitely in February, will ultimately not be held this year. Habanos S.A. announced the decision Monday through its social media accounts, although it has yet to update the information on its website.

The state-owned company explained that it made the decision “after evaluating the current context and with the aim of preserving the standards of excellence that distinguish this renowned international gathering.” It is the same wording used by organizers five months ago to announce that the 26th edition of the festival, scheduled for February 24–27, had been “postponed” until a new date that would be announced “in due course.”

Since then, the crisis gripping the country, worsened by the US oil blockade following its intervention in Venezuela at the beginning of the year, has not eased. Far from it, Cuba’s northern neighbor has renewed its pressure on the Cuban regime, most recently with a report published Monday accusing Havana of having been, for nearly seven decades, the hub of attacks against countries in the Western Hemisphere through what is known as “21st-century communism.”

Considered one of Cuba’s most important commercial events, as the premier international showcase for the country’s premium cigars, the Habano Festival has brought together millionaires, global distributors and cigar enthusiasts each year and has generated substantial revenue for state coffers. In 2025, revenues reached a record $827 million, $106 million more than the previous year.

In its statement, the organizing committee said it “will continue to closely follow developments with the aim of holding a future edition when conditions allow the Festival to be presented with the excellence, scope and quality that have made it an international benchmark.”

It added that there will be no changes to “the extensive program planned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Cohiba, one of the most iconic and prestigious brands in the world of Habano cigars, whose celebrations will continue over the coming months with major new developments and exclusive events.” The first event on that program, organizers said, will be the presentation of the Cohiba Talismán in London on October 7th.

In February, a food-service worker who had participated in previous editions of the Festival and requested anonymity for fear of reprisals told 14ymedio that the suspension had derailed plans for an even more extravagant display than the previous year.

“Imagine, this year the private party was going to be held at El Morro. The Chinese businessman who organizes all of that wanted the tip of the lighthouse to appear to ‘catch fire’ at one point during the night, all done with lighting effects, as if it were a giant cigar. It was going to be visible throughout the city,” she said.

According to the source, the businessman was “pretty furious” about the cancellation of the event, which she said was prompted not only by the fuel shortage but also by the negative political impact of holding it in the midst of the crisis and in the wake of the backlash generated by the previous edition.

Among many of the employees involved, the worker added, there was a dilemma that had not been felt so intensely in previous years. “On the one hand, we really needed the money, because they pay well and in foreign currency. But on the other hand, there was fear,” she said.

Fear of possible protests, of being singled out or confronted while serving drinks and meals to a foreign elite insulated from the blackouts and shortages. “After what happened at the Capitol last year, nobody wanted to end up at the center of a viral photo or a confrontation,” she said.

The previous edition of the Habano Festival, held with a lavish gala dinner at the National Capitol, sparked widespread public outrage that spilled across social media. While the country was enduring prolonged blackouts, food shortages and a general deterioration in daily life, images of foreign guests raising glasses beneath restored chandeliers and dining at lavishly arranged tables inside one of the Republic’s most symbolic buildings was seen as an obscene provocation.

Thousands of Cubans reacted angrily to the spectacle of millions being lavished on an elite, in stark contrast to a population condemned to darkness, rationing and the hardships of everyday life.

First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.

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