The Cigar Lounge: Where Hippies Puff on Cuban Cigars

YOU could hear the plane before you could see it, a low throb growing louder as it emerged from the morning mist above the Hertfordshire countryside.

At 9.45am on Wednesday Michael Romanek, director of alternative investments at Fortis, the Dutch bank, and five others leapt out head first.

At 3000ft one parachutist pulled a cord, and a 240ft flag unfurled from his leg. Suddenly the name and logo of Fortis was emblazoned across the sky.

For those waiting below in the grounds of Knebworth House this was the signal: Hedgestock, the "alternative conference for the alternative investment industry" -- one of the most ambitious, extravagant and bizarre business meetings ever organised -- had started.

A short distance from the drop zone a queue of cars -- dominated by Jaguars, convertible BMWs and Porsches -- snaked up the drive to the historic home. Emerging from them was an assortment of long-haired hippies, loudly decorated with beads, psychedelic T-shirts and John Lennon-style sunglasses.

Flower-power flags, heralding the start of "Two Days of Peace and Love," drew delegates up the track to the tented village of Hedgestock.Dominating the site, at more than 30m tall, was a music stage from Bono's Live 8 extravaganza in Hyde Park last summer. It would be used in the evening for a private performance by The Who ahead of the release of their first album for 23 years.

Music blared from every direction.Hedgestock's organiser, Albourne Partners, had promised to recreate Woodstock, the famous rock festival of the 1969 "summer of love". But, predictably, they and their delegates had gone one better.

The hippies puffed on Cuban cigars instead of joints, quaffed champagne rather than warm beer, and in the place of the traditional mud there was a specially designed playground -- complete with a polo field, cricket pitch, laser clay pigeon shooting range, hot-air balloon station and remote-controlled duck racing.

Rarely have the excesses of the high-rolling but secretive hedge fund industry been displayed so publicly. Nearly 4000 delegates -- from hedge fund managers to investors and service providers -- had paid the pound stg. 500 ($1228) entry fee plus thousands of pounds more to exhibit at Hedgestock.

One in five had come from overseas, with visitors from America, India, Australia, Bermuda and all over Europe.Banks competed to dazzle their most important clients. Royal Bank of Scotland hired out Brocket Hall, the neighbouring stately home, for its "after-party" and for clients to stay the night.

...hippies have refined tastes...