To say that Spanish Festival Queen IX Chacelyn Peltier lives and breathes the festival life is not an exaggeration.

Peltier, a freshman at LSU majoring in agriculture education, spends much of her time when she isn’t attending classes in Baton Rouge travelling all across Louisiana promoting the Spanish Festival, New Iberia and Iberia Parish.

“We’re always constantly learning,” Peltier said. “Being a queen is about representing your organization with your full heart, but an even bigger part of it is traveling the state and getting your name out there and teaching and learning.”

Peltier has been able to share some of the successes that the Spanish Festival has had with other festivals across the state, while also bringing back new and exciting ideas to incorporate into her own event. 

“One thing that I told other queens about our field trip,” she said. “Each year, we host a field trip for high school students where we incorporate them into our festival. Other festivals have dance groups, mostly young children, who perform at the festival. What better way to get people involved and interested than having them come to the festival and seeing it for themselves?”

Peltier, who has served as the Junior Spanish Festival Queen and Teen Spanish Festival Queen in the past, has also served as Teen Miss Iberia and the Iberia Parish Farm Bureau Queen. Peltier is now the only queen to ever hold all three of the contracted titles with the Spanish Festival, something she said has been a goal of hers for years. 

Brinkley Segura Lopez, President of La Asociación Española de Nueva Iberia, said that Peltier plays a vital role in spreading the word about the event across the state. 

“We are very blessed to have Chacelyn as our queen,” Segura Lopez said. “She is a very well-rounded young lady and she puts her heart and soul into everything she does. She’s somebody that I look up to and she always has a smile on her face.”

While serving in her various roles, Peltier has had a front row seat to the growth the festival has experienced in its short history. After beginning in 2012, the festival has seen impressive growth and has become just as well known as New Iberia’s Sugarcane Festival.

“The growth has been exponential,” Peltier said. “When I started competing, the festival was only one day, so to see that we’re now a booming three-day festival is amazing. People want more and more every year and each year we have more attendance. It makes my heart so happy to see that the people of New Iberia are responding so well to it.”

It isn’t just New Iberia who has accepted the festival. Visitors from across the state have begun adding the festival to their itineraries in anticipation of good food, entertaining events and interesting history lessons. 

For Peltier, the historical aspect of the festival is an important part of why she loves it so much. Tracing her own family’s history back to the Spanish founding of New Iberia, Peltier said that she loves learning more each year about her heritage and Spanish culture in general. 

“I’ve learned so many fun things! One of my favorite things to tell our younger visitors is that the Spanish tooth fairy isn’t a fairy, it’s a rat,” she joked.

Peltier said that Spain was also the first country to invent the lollipop, a sign that Spanish culture has become part of everyday life in America. 

For those interested in learning more about Spanish culture, opportunities abound this weekend.

Saturday’s events begin at 8 a.m. with a “running of the bulls” 5K race which leads into the Founding Families Parade, which starts at 10 a.m. Following the parade is a cookoff featuring tapas, paella and jambalaya dishes for the whole family to enjoy. 

The events continue on Sunday with an Easter egg hunt at 10:45 a.m. and a car show that lasts all day. 

One of Peltier’s must-see events is the flamenco dance tutorial that takes place on Saturday at the newly renovated Steamboat Pavillion. Peltier also said the festival will offer ride bands for families who wish to partake in the numerous carnival rides at Bouligny Plaza. Each band will cost $30 and allow unlimited rides from 12p.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information about the festival or to see a full list of this weekend’s events, visit newiberiaspanishfestival.com or follow the Spanish Festival’s Facebook page.