Power outage hits Cannes Film Festival and traffic in southeastern France

A significant power outage hit southeastern France over the weekend, causing disruptions in traffic and temporarily halting events at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. The outage affected around 160,000 households in the Alpes-Maritimes department after a high-voltage line fell on Saturday morning. This incident was preceded by a fire at an electrical substation near Cannes, which had already weakened the grid.

Organizers of the Cannes Film Festival confirmed that the outage impacted the early activities on Saturday, but assured that the Palais des Festivals, the main venue of the festival, had switched to an independent power supply to ensure that scheduled events and screenings, including the Closing Ceremony, would proceed as planned. Despite the efforts to mitigate the impact of the power outage, screenings at the Cineum, one of the festival’s satellite venues, were briefly suspended.

The outage also led to the malfunctioning of traffic lights in parts of Cannes and the neighboring city of Antibes, resulting in traffic congestion and confusion in city centers. Many shops along the Croisette remained closed, and local food kiosks could only accept cash payments. Train services in Cannes were also disrupted due to the power outage.

Authorities are currently working on restoring power to the affected areas and have advised residents to exercise caution while traveling. The cause of the outage is still under investigation, and restoration efforts are ongoing to ensure that normalcy is restored as soon as possible.

For more updates and coverage of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, you can visit https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival. Stay tuned for further developments on this story.