The poster for the Three Kings parade in Seville in 2026 sparked controversy for the images it shows: a child who, on the morning of the Three Kings, enters his living room to look for the gifts that were left for him, while on one side you can see a Real Betis t-shirt and a tunic from the Macarena Brotherhood hanging. The Sevillian painter Fernando Vaquero, author of the poster, denounced the harassment he suffers after the presentation of his work, especially from football fans who complain about the choice of one team over others in the province and from devotees of other Sevillian religious brotherhoods.
The poster for the Parade of the Three Kings of Seville 2025 was presented last Friday afternoon by the University of Seville, the private body that organizes the parade. As Vaquero explained, the poster, made in oil on canvas, tells an intimate scene inspired by the morning of January 6th. The image shows a paper bag with the University coat of arms next to the door, symbolizing “the magic that is about to be reborn”, and a room illuminated by the dawn in which a child – painted with his back turned so that “everyone can see their reflection” – contemplates his gifts. Among the elements, the artist includes personal details such as the face of his daughter Julia in one of the infant figures.
✨Let’s discover the Cartel of #Cabalgatasvq2026! 🙌🏽
🎨 @fvaquerov presents us with his work “The Illusion”, in an event that took place this afternoon, at the headquarters of the Caja Rural del Sur Foundation.
🖌️👩🏼🎨 The technique of the work is “oil on canvas” wanting to dedicate it to his… pic.twitter.com/VTpEKQhHgO
— University of Seville (@ateneodesevilla) November 14, 2025
The sensation was created above all on social networks. While the fans of Real Betis Balompié and the Hermandad de la Macarena celebrated the poster, often in a joking tone and with memes, others felt offended, such as the fans of the Sevilla Fútbol Club and those of the Hemandad de la Esperanza de Triana, the other large devout brotherhood of the city.
In a statement posted on his X account, Vaquero made it clear that he “did not intend to exclude or divide anyone” with his work. “I simply wanted to immortalize the way in which children in Christmas letters ask for, among other things, football shirts, and to represent this idea I used a memory from my childhood where they gave me a Betis shirt,” he underlined.
As stated in his statement, he “did not ask for anything” for making the poster. “I did it as a sincere gift to my city, a gesture of affection which, unfortunately, some wanted to interpret as a poisoned gift,” he said.
However, Vaquero said he understands that a work can be criticized, but that what it suffers from “goes much further: it is aggressive, disproportionate and harmful cyberbullying.” The painter reported having experienced episodes of “insulting or threatening telephone calls in the early hours of the morning” from people who reproached him for not having included the Sevilla FC shirt and an Esperanza de Triana shirt.
For this reason the artist has decided “not to issue any type of statement to any media nor respond to any comments on the networks”.
