Several hours of blackout in Cannes just before the festival closing ceremony-Liberation
It’s going to cut, darling. Extinct traffic lights, network and internet breakdown, complete blackout: the Cannes festival was hit this Saturday May 24 in the morning by a power cut, found journalists from Release On site. According to Nice-Matin, Who reported the first information, the incident concerned the western part of the Alpes-Maritimes department, covering the municipalities of Vallauris, Mandelieu-la-Napoule and Antibes, as well as some villages in the Nice hinterland. After four good hours during which the city was plunged into the limbo, the current ended up returning around 1 p.m.
« An important electricity failure is currently affecting western Alpes-Maritimes, announced in the morning the prefecture of the department. The RTE services are currently working on restoring the situation. Be careful when traveling. ” According to RTE, 160,000 households were deprived of electricity.
Contrary to what had been indicated at first, the incident did not come from a breakdown but from a fire of criminal origin having touched a high voltage post in the night in Tanneron (Var). The flames declared themselves at 2 a.m. and were circumscribed at 7 am. Enough to cut the current in the city for the first time in the night. After this fire, it was the fall of a pylon of a high -voltage line fueling Cannes which resulted in the 10 -hour cut.
On the last day of the festival, whose list will be unveiled in the evening, it is the “catch -up” projections of the films of the competition that were disrupted around 10 am this morning. And again, not that much: in the middle of the projection of Sirat, From the Spaniard Oliver Laxe, the chaos – light lights, a film which continues without the sound track, festival -goers shouting and whistling in the hope of attracting the attention of the teams of the place or filming to document the scene – will have lasted only ten minutes. On the other hand, at the Cinéum, multiplex on the outskirts of the city where projections also take place, the sessions were canceled.
In the streets of Cannes the following hours, floated a certain strangeness. Open stores but immersed in darkness,, Armadas of idle traders and haggard air, rumors in all directions – « It seems that it is downright to Lyon ». Cannois and festival -goers hand in hand, scratching in the depths of their wallets to find the trace of the slightest piece allowing them to buy, which its radish boot, which its flip flops for the beach.
Despite the jubilation to see the consumer company thus suspended, the special envoys of Liberty had some cold sweats, a few hours from the closing ceremony. Quickly dried by a press release from the festival management, which promised that « All scheduled events and projections (Saturday), including the ceremony » would be maintained « In normal conditions ».
Update at 4:20 p.m. with the restoration of electricity.
