Cannes, France – The French authorities believe that the criminal fire may have played a role in a power failure on Saturday in the south-east of France which threatened to endanger the closing celebrations of the Cannes Festival, including the highly anticipated golden palm ceremony.
The electricity was restored a few hours before the ceremony, around 3 p.m., the local time, while the music started exploding speakers by the sea. The end of the power failure was welcomed with noisy cheers of the inhabitants.
The authorities were investigating the probability of fire fire in a fire in an electrical substation near Cannes which weakened the grid of the day overnight, said a spokesman for the French national gendarmerie.
The power failure occurred a few hours later, after falling from a high voltage line to another place. The authorities were investigating what caused the line.
About 160,000 households in the Alpes-Maritimes region have lost electricity.
In a press release, Laurent Hottiaux, the prefect of the region, condemned “serious acts of damage to electric infrastructure”.
“All the resources are mobilized to identify, find, stop and translate the authors of these acts into justice,” said Hottiaux.
The organizers of the Cannes Film Festival confirmed that the failure had affected the first activities on Saturday and said that the festivals of the Palais des – The main place of Croisette – had increased to an independent power supply.
“All the planned events and projections, including the closing ceremony, will occur as planned and under normal conditions,” said the press release. “At this point, the cause of the breakdown has not yet been identified. Catering efforts are underway.”
The traffic lights in certain parts of Cannes and the city of the surrounding antiboses have stopped operating after 10 hours, which led to traffic jams and confusion in the city centers. Most of the stores along the Croisette remained closed and local food kiosks only accepted money. The Train Service in Cannes has also been disrupted.
The projections of the Cineum, one of the festival satellite sites, were briefly suspended, added the festival.
The Palme d’Or – The most prestigious prize of the festival – was to be awarded on Saturday evening, with the best candidates, including the family drama of Joachim Trier, “sentimental value”, the political thriller of Jafar Panahi “It was an accident” of Kleber Mendonça “Sir” and the secret agent “and óliver the Dean Trip de lax.
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For more coverage of the 2025 Cannes Festival, visit https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival.
