A power outage in south-eastern France temporarily affected the final day of the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, May 24.
Electricity network operator RTE said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter) that around 160,000 housed in the Alpes-Maritimes region lost electricity after a major high-voltage power line collapsed.
However, festival organisers have said that the closing ceremony will still take place as planned as they have access to backup power, as per BBC.
“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," the organization said in a statement.
The police are now investigating if someone "deliberately" caused the fire that may have led to the outage.
Fire causes major power outage:
As per the reports, the outage came hours after a fire broke out at an electrical substation near Cannes during the night which had already weekend the grid.
In addition to this, because of the power outage, traffic lights in Cannes and Antibes stopped working after 10am which caused traffic jams.
Meanwhile, Train services were also affected by the power outage.
Palme d'Or announcement:
On the other hand, the 2025 Cannes Film Festival started on May 13 is now set to present its biggest award, the Palme d'Or to the film that the jury has chosen as the Best Feature Film.
