Smoke Inn Blog
Good Times at The Great Smoke 2023
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or this is your first visit to Smoke Inn, you have likely heard of our annual event called The Great Smoke. It’s an opportunity to celebrate everything we love about premium cigars and the cigar life. We release a bunch of exclusives leading up to it that you can find nowhere else on Earth. But not all of you have attended a TGS event before. This article will give you the lowdown on the 17th annual event, The Great Smoke 2023 and by the end of it, you’ll probably be scrambling to buy your tickets if you don’t have ‘em already. If you have your tickets, this will serve to fill you in on what to expect and help get you fired up. So, let’s go!
What is The Great Smoke 2023?
Let’s pretend for a minute that you’re from Mars, or maybe you’re just a casual cigar smoker who is new to Smoke Inn and you don’t know much, if anything about TGS. The Great Smoke is an annual event that officially begins on a Thursday night and runs through the weekend. But there are a number of live online events and pre-event parties leading up to it. It’s kind of a big deal if we do say so ourselves. It would be doing it a disservice to just call it a “trade show” because there’s so much more to it than that. This isn’t an event only for industry insiders where deals are made. It’s a chance for aficionados and enthusiastic newbies alike to mingle with the heavy hitters and master blenders from some of the most illustrious premium cigar brands. Let’s start with the timeline though before we get ahead of ourselves here.
TGS 2023 Timeline
The Great Smoke 2023 is a rare chance to mingle with some big names, but you will also find access to rare exclusives available nowhere else and a great opportunity to meet others like you who are in the cigar life, make new friends and network. Each event has a theme. The Great Smoke 2022 was our 16th annual TGS event and the theme was The Last Luau, with a Hawaiian flavor throughout. The 2023 TGS theme is Mardi Gras Madness.
In 2021, the COVID pandemic made TGS #15 in a virtual/online only event. The silver lining is we realized that you guys loved the virtual events. Now they’re a part of The Great Smoke every year! The virtual events leading up to and during TGS are a blast and, if you’ve got your tickets, you’ll also be able to secure yourself those sweet, sweet TGS exclusive cigars that can be found nowhere else on Earth during these virtual events.
The Great Smoke 2023 main event will be held at South Florida Fairgrounds, allowing enough space for cigar enthusiasts, cigar manufacturers, and all of the epic activities that The Great Smoke has become known over the years.
Thursday Evening
The upcoming TGS officially begins on the evening of Thursday, March 16, 2023, at the Smoke Inn mothership in Boynton Beach and will be launched by none other than Jonathan Drew of Drew Estate.
Friday Evening
On Friday night, the happening at Smoke Inn Boynton Beach will be hosted by the honorable Steve Saka of Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust, maker of our famous Red Meat Lovers Beef Stick. There will also be an optional Friday evening TGS/RML dinner hosted by Michael Herklots of Ferio Tego, which we highly recommend attending if you’re able. Separate tickets are required for the dinner and you can purchase those here.
Saturday Morning
We kick off The Great Smoke 2023 on Saturday AM with a tailgate party hosted by Distinguished Ruffians at the South Florida Fairgrounds. The tailgate party is a new feature this year and it runs from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm or so. It’s free to attend and we think it’s going to be a lot of fun, so definitely turn up for that. You’re going to be at the fairgrounds for the rest of the event anyhow, so it’d be kind of crazy not to make the tailgate party beforehand, right?. The first 100 people to attend get a FREE Ruffians TGS Exclusive Cigar too, so get there early. Erik Espinosa of Espinosa Cigars will be appearing as a special guest as well, so it’s going to be a good time, guaranteed and a great way to pre-game the main event. Don’t miss it! Ah, almost forgot: Beer will be served and a DJ is onsite. Fun to be had. Be there!
Saturday Evening
There’s another get-together on Saturday night at Smoke Inn HQ in Boynton Beach, which is being generously hosted by Mr. Matt Booth of Room 101 Cigars. After that we’ve got a FREE Saturday night afterparty at the Spearmint Rhino Gentlemen’s Club in West Palm Beach, which is…well if you can’t enjoy yourself at Spearmint Rhino, where can you? Just show your TGS badge at the door for free admittance and join us for a great time!
Sunday Morning
Finally, we bring The Great Smoke 2023 to a suitably luxuriant close with a Sunday brunch back at Smoke Inn HQ in Boynton Beach. The 2023 Sunday brunch is being graciously hosted by Terence Reilly, VP of Aganorsa Leaf Cigars. We can’t think of a better way to wrap up the stellar event that serious cigar smokers look forward to all year. You’ll need separate tickets for the Sunday Brunch, so be sure and grab yourself and your crew some right here while you still can!
We’ll See You at The Great Smoke 2023!
That’s just a taste of what you can expect at the cigar event of the year. If you don’t have your tickets yet, don’t wait much longer. TGS tickets come with many privileges, not the least of which is access to purchase TGS exclusive smokes that go on sale leading up to the event. If you’re not in South Florida and can’t make it here in March we’re not going to let you be left out, we’ve got you! Grab your virtual event TGS 2023 tickets right here and you can access all the online events, buy TGS exclusive smokes and you also get a bunch of killer TGS exclusive swag and 32 premium cigars from our event participants. Packages start shipping on March 1st, so there’s a good chance you’ll even have your stuff before the official event kicks off. We hope to see you in person for Smoke Inn’s cigar Superbowl, but at the very least, hook yourself up with tickets for the virtual festivities. You won’t regret it! They also make an amazing Christmas gift for that special cigar aficionado in your life.
As always, if you’re local or happen to be visiting South Florida, be sure to reward yourself with a visit to one of the country’s best cigar shops in person. We’d love to see you.
Our South Florida Locations:
- Smoke Inn Palm Beach Gardens
- Smoke Inn West Palm Beach
- Smoke Inn Delray Beach
- Smoke Inn Boynton Beach
- Smoke Inn Pompano Beach
- Smoke Inn Tequesta
- Smoke Inn Port St. Lucie
- Smoke Inn Vero Beach
