UK Cigar Scene Magazine September Issue 9 | Page 18

MY MOST MEMORABLE CIGARS
By Richard Sloan
Long-time Cuban Cigar smoker, Art Director, DJ,
and now Educator in the Bronx, New York New
York USA.
I began smoking Cuban cigars in London in the
early 2000s. My favourite brands are Ramon
Allones, Rafael Gonzales, Bolivar.
My most memorable cigars are:

Cigar One: Sancho Panza Sancho A
Where & When?
Smoked at the Sunrise Club, Negril, Jamaica in
the late morning.

Cigar Two: Montecristo no.2
Where & When?
Smoked at Negril, Jamaica the same evening.
Why was it memorable?
The time was when I was a ‘social entrepreneur’
working in Jamaica. My efforts were based around
a concert and event series called Soul Rebellion,
which I had developed as a direct response to the
ubiquitous spring break experience that US college
students had when they came down to Negril to go
wild for a week.
My base of operations was always the Jungle
Nightclub, and we would do big shows and
concerts and use the proceeds to build schools,
build libraries, or put in flush toilets to replace
pit latrines in local schools. The idea was just
to try and do some cool stuff and give back.
Everything would be anchored by a “Buy-A-Block”
program, hosted at Traveller’s Beach Resort, who
was also the home of the Negril Education and
Environment Trust.
I’ll be honest and say I didn’t fully comprehend the
reaction of the traditional spring break companies
to my plans, I thought there would be room
enough for everyone. They declared all out WAR. It
was cutthroat.

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They even went so far as to create their own event
to mimic mine called Jamfest, bringing in Shaggy
to headline. Being a DJ, I knew all about the local
dancehall scene. I formulated my plan. .
The Plan was to book one of the more
controversial but rising artists. It had to be
someone a lot of Jamaicans would want to see, but
who wouldn’t necessarily come to see him do a
show out in a field.
It was clear who I needed to get. Mavado, a local
artist with the most records out.
We went head to head with the Shaggy event and
with my heart in my throat. I walked out to the
street the night of and couldn’t believe the line in
front of the gate...we CRUSHED it. I didn’t even
need to see the other venue to know that Jamfest
was a disaster. We were about to build a tuck shop
for a local school.
That very next morning I came to. I was glowing.
We survived, and we proved that we were not to be
messed with. I needed to do something special.