Ana Lopez has gained a reputation of her own in the realm of cigars, first as Marketing Director for Habanos S.A., and now as Corporate Director at Hunters & Frankau in the United Kingdom. But she’s also known as a key figure in the history of the Habano festivals

How did the Habano festivals come into being? The idea popped up in 1997 after the successful celebration to mark the Cohiba brand’s 30th anniversary, attended by over 800 guests and hundreds of news media organizations from around the world. The charity auction grabbed headlines nearly everywhere, and it was mostly owed to the presence of Cuban President Fidel Castro who had never attended a event like that.

At that time international demand for premium cigars was on a roll and consumers were eager to get information on both Cuba and the Habanos. The threshold of the new century was the perfect time to hold the Habanos in the Dawn of the Year 2000 event in 1999, quite a challenge in the face of increasing hardships and lack of proper infrastructure back then. But thanks to the support of many friends inside Cuba and overseas, the gathering was a smash hit, so we decided to hold it on a regular basis. The late Francisco Linares, former President of Habanos S.A., called that event the Habano Festival.

In your own view, how much of an impact does the Habano Festival have in Cuba and elsewhere? The Festival involves the entire tobacco industry and other sectors, like culture, healthcare and tourism. The party sways from the plantations all the way to the cigar factories.

The Habano festivals have raked in over $4 million for Cuba’s healthcare system, and craftspeople and artists have also chipped in. From an international standpoint, the event has served as a bridge between Cuba’s tobacco industry and Habano consumers. In recent years, more than 100,000 participants from 50 nations, with different cultural values, creeds and ideologies, have visited Cuba moved by only one spirit: the Habano. I don’t think there’s another product in the world with so much magic in it.

What have the festivals meant to you personally? It’s been so pleasant to live out all these festivals as either an organizer or an attendant, and work with wonderful people from Habanos S.A. and other institutions that have shed so much light on Cuba’s name. It was an honor for me to count on the support of such boldface names like Orlando Quiroga, maestro Leo Brower and chef Gilberto Smith, as well as many other not-so-well-known persons who have played a key role in the organization and made the festivals a dream come true. Painters like Nelson Dominguez, Kcho and Flora Fong have also helped us. I’m so happy to see that the seed we sowed ten years ago is now a hefty, tall and fruit-bearing tree.

How do you assess the ongoing situation of the market you’re working for now? In the UK, the antismoking campaign has been way too strong and last year a full-time ban on smoking in public places went into effect, so that has ripple effects on sales. But we remain upbeat. We believe smokers will eventually find the right place to enjoy their Habanos. As a matter of fact, coming to Cuba to share the atmosphere of the Festival is both a luxury and an exclusive moment for any cigar smoker.