Organizers unveiled the new poster art for the 2018 Penn Cove Mussel Festival Monday night.

This is the first year the festival has been solely organized by the Coupeville Historic Waterfront Association and with a locally sourced artist.

When organization for the event changed hands, the association wanted to source everything as local as possible, said Sami Postma, association member.

Scott Rosenkranz from Rosenkranz Productions was selected to create the new poster art. Each year the festival poster features a mermaid, but it changes every year.

Through the process, Rosenkrantz said he probably came up with 10 different mermaids.

“We wanted the name of the event large and a clean design,” Rosenkrantz said. “The mermaid needed to engage you.”

Along with a new poster artist, the association created a committee for the event with people who at one time or another have been involved with past festivals.

With them, they bring new ideas and new perspectives, Postma said.

Some of those ideas include selling a certain percentage of chowder tasting tickets online ahead of time as well as introducing a new tasting ticket on Sundays for those who aren’t necessarily fans of mussels.

Committee member Christian Chambers said he’s organizing a “Heart of Whidbey” tasting ticket that will feature non-mussel tastings.

The Penn Cove Mussel Festival is March 3-4 in downtown Coupeville.