Cannes Film Festival struck by major power outage
Cannes Film Festival has been struck by a major power outage, sparking disruption to the event as it prepared to hand out its prestigious top prize, Azernews reports.
About 160,000 households in the Alpes-Maritimes department lost power on Saturday.
A high-voltage line reportedly feel in the morning, electricity network operator RTE said on X.
The power cut came just hours after a fire at an electrical substation near Cannes overnight, weakening the grid.
Confirming the outage, Cannes Film Festival organisers said early activities were disrupted, adding that Palais des Festivals — the main venue — was forced to switch to an independent power supply.
It said in a statement: “All scheduled events and screenings, including the Closing Ceremony, will proceed as planned and under normal conditions.
"At this stage, the cause of the outage has not yet been identified. Restoration efforts are underway."
Meanwhile, screenings at the Cineum, one of the festival’s satellite venues, were briefly halted.
Traffic lights in parts of Cannes and the surrounding city of Antibes stopped working after 10 am, causing to traffic jams while train services were also disrupted.
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