CANNES, France — A serious energy outage struck southeastern France on Saturday, disrupting site visitors and briefly halting occasions on the Cannes Movie Competition as the celebrated occasion ready at hand out its high prize.
About 160,000 households within the Alpes-Maritimes division misplaced electrical energy after a high-voltage line fell Saturday morning, electrical energy community operator RTE mentioned on X. The outage got here hours after a fireplace at {an electrical} substation close to Cannes in a single day had already weakened the grid.
Cannes Movie Competition organizers confirmed the outage affected the early actions of Saturday and mentioned the Palais des Festivals – the Croisette’s primary venue – had switched to an unbiased energy provide.
“All scheduled occasions and screenings, together with the Closing Ceremony, will proceed as deliberate and underneath regular circumstances,” the assertion mentioned. “At this stage, the reason for the outage has not but been recognized. Restoration efforts are underway.”
Nonetheless, screenings on the Cineum, one of many competition’s satellite tv for pc venues, have been briefly suspended, the competition added.
Visitors lights in components of Cannes and the encircling metropolis of Antibes stopped working after 10 a.m., resulting in site visitors jams and confusion in metropolis facilities. Most retailers alongside the Croisette remained closed, and native meals kiosks have been solely accepting money. Prepare service in Cannes was additionally disrupted.
Authorities mentioned restoration efforts have been ongoing and urged residents to stay cautious throughout journey.
