This year’s poster, designed by New Iberia Mayor Freddie DeCourt, is of a bull wearing a suit and reading a newspaper, with the headline “A Taste of Spain on the Teche” across the front.

Laughter and applause erupted from the Sliman Theater Thursday night as La Asociación Española de Nueva Iberia leadership and Mayor Freddie DeCourt unveiled the 2022 Spanish Festival Poster.

This year’s poster, designed by DeCourt, is of a bull wearing a suit and reading a newspaper, with the headline “A Taste of Spain on the Teche” across the front, which is the theme for this year’s festival.

“I love the design,” said Brinkley Segura Lopez, vice president of La Asociación Española de Nueva Iberia. She said the concept of a bull reading a newspaper isn’t seen very often. “It’s very comical. So, we do love it. It’s something very different and very unique.”

DeCourt said his design is inspired by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and the bulls that he painted.

“I’m just thrilled that the festival is back. It’s going to be bigger than ever,” DeCourt said to the audience Thursday night. “I hope people really take this little treasure that we have and understand it and get out there and celebrate our history and our families.”

Outside of his mayoral duties, DeCourt works as a general contractor, doing historic restorations and general commercial construction, and has a design firm. But he has always held a passion for painting, he told The Daily Iberian.

Lopez said DeCourt was asked to design a poster for a previous festival but that was all put on hold because of the COVID pandemic.

“We knew he was very talented and creative,” she said. “He does have Spanish heritage as well, so he was very happy to do something for us.”

The original painting of the poster design was available for purchase in an auction Thursday night during the association’s Spanish Festival Gala.

The poster design will also be printed onto t-shirts that will be available for purchase during the festival.

The last festival poster was designed by Isabelle Berry, who was a sophomore at New Iberia Senior High School when her poster design was unveiled in March 2020. Berry’s design featured a blue bull, inspired by the work of New Iberia native and artist George Rodrigue, according to Lopez.