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Promote with Leviathan NewsA major power outage struck southeastern France on the final day of the Cannes Film Festival, cutting electricity to around 160,000 households in Cannes, nearby Antibes and surrounding areas in the Alpes-Maritimes department on the morning of May 24, 2025. The blackout followed a fire at an electrical substation near Cannes overnight that had already weakened the grid; hours later, a high‑voltage line fell, triggering the widespread outage. French authorities opened an investigation into suspected arson or sabotage targeting electrical infrastructure, with the regional prefect condemning what he called “serious acts of damage” and law enforcement mobilizing to identify and arrest those responsible. The disruption hit the city just as the festival was preparing its closing screenings and Palme d’Or ceremony, briefly suspending some morning activities and satellite screenings, disrupting train services, shutting down many shops and restaurants along the Croisette, and knocking out traffic lights in parts of Cannes and Antibes, which caused traffic jams. Festival organizers reported that the main venue, the Palais des Festivals, switched to an independent backup power supply, allowing all scheduled events, including the closing ceremony, to proceed as planned once power was progressively restored by mid‑afternoon. The incident highlighted the vulnerability of large cultural events to infrastructure attacks and added a security and energy‑infrastructure dimension to coverage of the festival’s finale, even though the headline ceremonies ultimately went ahead under normal conditions.
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