{"id":7566,"date":"2025-05-24T15:48:48","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T15:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/24\/power-outage-disrupts-last-day-of-cannes-film-festival-police-investigating-possible-arson\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T15:48:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T15:48:48","slug":"power-outage-disrupts-last-day-of-cannes-film-festival-police-investigating-possible-arson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/24\/power-outage-disrupts-last-day-of-cannes-film-festival-police-investigating-possible-arson\/","title":{"rendered":"Power outage disrupts last day of Cannes Film Festival; police investigating possible arson"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A major power outage struck southeastern France on Saturday morning, threatening to jeopardize the Cannes Film Festival’s<\/a> closing celebrations, including the much-anticipated Palme d’Or ceremony.<\/p>\n

Police said they have opened an investigation into possible arson.<\/p>\n

Power was restored hours before the ceremony, around 3 p.m. local time, as music began blasting again from beachfront speakers. The end of the blackout was greeted with loud cheers from locals.<\/p>\n

Earlier, about 160,000 households in the Alpes-Maritimes department lost electricity after a high-voltage line fell Saturday morning, electricity network operator RTE said on X. The outage came hours after a fire at an electrical substation near Cannes overnight had already weakened the grid.<\/p>\n

“We are looking into the likelihood of a fire being started deliberately,” said a police spokesperson for the French national gendarmerie.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Laurent Hottiaux, the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes department, condemned “serious acts of damage to electrical infrastructures.”<\/p>\n

“All resources are mobilized to identify, track down, arrest and bring to justice the perpetrators of these acts,” said Hottiaux.<\/p>\n

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Traffic lights are switched off during an electricity outage in Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 24, 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Lewis Joly \/ AP<\/p>\n

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Cannes Film Festival organizers confirmed the outage affected the early activities of Saturday and said the Palais des Festivals \u2014 the Croisette’s main venue \u2014 had switched to an independent power supply.<\/p>\n

“All scheduled events and screenings, including the Closing Ceremony, will proceed as planned and under normal conditions,” the statement said. “At this stage, the cause of the outage has not yet been identified. Restoration efforts are underway.”<\/p>\n

Traffic lights in parts of Cannes and the surrounding city of Antibes stopped working after 10 a.m. local time, leading to traffic jams and confusion in city centers. Most shops along the Croisette remained closed, and local food kiosks were only accepting cash. Train service in Cannes was also disrupted.<\/p>\n

Screenings at the Cineum, one of the festival’s satellite venues, were briefly suspended, the festival added.<\/p>\n

The Palme d’Or<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 the festival’s most prestigious prize \u2014 was set to be awarded Saturday night, with top contenders including Joachim Trier’s family drama “Sentimental Value,” Jafar Panahi’s revenge thriller “It Was Just an Accident,” Kleber Mendon\u00e7a Filho’s political thriller “The Secret Agent,” and \u00d3liver Laxe’s desert road trip “Sir\u00e2t.”<\/p>\n

The lineup was unveiled last month for Cannes.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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