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Major power outage disrupts Cannes Film Festival in France

The blackout was caused by a series of accidents, power grid operator RTE said

PARIS, May 24. /TASS/. A major blackout struck southern France, disrupting some of the events of the Cannes Film Festival.

"The power outage has been affecting Cannes and surrounding communes since 10 a.m., leaving 160,000 homes without power. RTE and Enedis crews are currently working to restore power as quickly as possible," power grid operator RTE said in a statement.

According to the operator, the blackout was caused by a series of accidents. First, a fire damaged a local electrical substation at 2:45 a.m. local time. That was followed by the collapse of a support of a high-voltage line near Cannes 10:00 a.m.. It hasn’t yet been reported what caused the accidents.

France 3 television and some other news media have reported that the outage affected the Cannes Film Festival as it was holding screenings ahead of the announcement of the winner in the main competition. One of the interrupted screenings at the Palais des Festivals was of the film Sirat by French-Spanish director Oliver Laxe, which the media named as one of the favorites.

While the Palais des Festivals switched to independent power supply, nearby cinema halls had to suspend screenings. News reports said the railway service was also affected, stranding hundreds of people at the city’s station.

Festival organizers said the Closing Ceremony will proceed as scheduled on Saturday night.

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