A large electricity cut has affected this Saturday morning to the west zone of the Maritime Alps department, in southeastern France, including the city of Cannes, where this afternoon the closing ceremony of the film festival will be held with the reading of the palmraés and the delivery of the Golden Palm. In a statement issued at 12:15, the organization claimed that they will continue with the gala. At approximately 15:00, electricity has returned to the city, while in the rest of the region it has gradually returned
As EFE had informed a spokesman for the local prefecture, the blackout extended throughout the west of the department, bordering Italy, and has affected some 160,000 homes throughout the French southeast. According to the Operating Operator RTE, the cut has been due to the fire of a distribution station and the fall of a post.
The cut occurred around 10.00 local time. In the first place, there was “a fire that affected a distribution station around 2.45 in the morning in the Cannes region and, therefore, weakened the network,” said the RTE spokesman in mid -morning. Then, at 10, a post fell on a line that supplies the Cannes basin, near the Saint-Cassien Lake. There has begun the blackout, which has caused specific interruptions in the activities of the festival. The repetition of the projections of films present in competition, scheduled for this morning, were suspended for 30 seconds at the headquarters of the contest before being able to resume thanks to the palace’s structure. That has happened to, for example, Sirât, of Oliver Laxe, whose session had started at 8.30. In the streets, the situation was very similar to that lived in Spain last Monday, April 28: stores and bars have remained open, although without electricity and the terraces full of people, who took advantage of the good weather that the town has enjoyed for two days, after a day of intermittent rainfall. Only luxury stores closed, numerous in this town.
Although the Palace of Festivals has electricity, thanks to its own structures, the rest of the town continued without supply. That is why the projections, the press conferences and the rest of the acts have maintained their planned schedule. The same has not happened with the projections made in rooms outside the palace, which were canceled.
The Cannes train station has also been affected, and although no services were canceled, railway sources confirmed to EFE that there have already been delays. At the doors of the station, north of the city’s heart, and only six minutes from the croisette, from the beginning of the cut they were swirling numerous travelers, although the general mood did not exceed mere concern about the difficulty of leaving Cannes.
From that station also leave buses to the nearest airport, that of Nice, already these vehicles have affected traffic, which has advanced very slowly during those five hours without light: the station borders the Cannes Circunvalación, which has traffic lights, and that is where the police have focused their efforts.
The luxury hotels that appear to the Croisette also have their own generators: in those five -star accommodations the activity has been the usual. In the rest of the bars and stores, full on a sunny Saturday, customers consumed and bought with cash.
For now, the only famous affected seems to be the actor Josh O’Connor. The English had two films to contest in that end of Festival: Wednesday The History of Sound And yesterday Friday The Mastermind. To the gala and the promotion of the first one could not attend for a filming. To that of The Mastermind He went in the middle of Friday, just arrived in the city, but for the blackout today, after participating in his press conference at 10:15, he has annulled the rest of the promotion meetings to return to his filming.