On Saturday, May 24, the French city of Cannes and its surroundings suffered a major power outage.
Despite the renowned film festival, the lights went out on the French Riviera. According to the power grid operator RTE, nearly 160,000 households were left without electricity as a result of the outage that hit Cannes and nearby areas on Saturday, May 24.
The incident affected the Cannes Film Festival—one of the screenings was interrupted but later resumed with the help of a generator.
The power outage occurred in the morning, around 10 a.m. According to preliminary information gathered by BFMTV, it had two causes: first, a fire that broke out overnight at an electrical substation in Tanneron (Var department). The second cause followed from the first—the fire weakened a power transmission line.
The situation worsened around 10 a.m. due to the collapse of an electricity pole.
“RTE and Enedis teams are currently working to restore electricity as quickly as possible,” RTE stated on the social network X.
The consequences of this large-scale outage were significant: several mobile network operators experienced service disruptions, and traffic lights in Cannes and Antibes stopped working.
Regarding the initial cause of the incident, BFMTV, citing the gendarmerie, reported that arson is being investigated. The prosecutor of Draguignan confirmed that an investigation has been launched.
