[On the night of Friday to Saturday, May 24, several fires broke out at the same Biançon/Saint-Cassien extra-high-voltage hydroelectric power station in Tanneron (Var), at around 2:45 am. The fence was cut and traces of accelerant were found on site. 47,000 homes were without power, from the east of Var to the west of the Alpes-Maritimes. Then, at 10 a.m., thirty-five kilometers away, the pylon of a 225,000 volt high-voltage power line supplying the city of Cannes faltered that morning. Located in Villeneuve-Loubet (Alpes-maritimes), the 28-metre-high pylon suffered “major damage”, with three of its four pillars “sawed off”, leaving 160,000 households in and around Cannes without power.
This double sabotage resulted in a huge blackout in the south-east of France, particularly in Cannes, Antibes, Grasse, Vallauris, Mandelieu-la Napoule and Saint-Cézaire-sur-Siagne. It cut off factories, institutions, shops, elevators, traffic lights, cash dispensers, internet and television (via the modems), the Orange cell phone network (most of the cell tower’s back-up batteries lasted only two hours), railroad lines (train cancellations between Grasse and Cannes and delays between Les Arcs and Antibes), police stations (Antibes, Grasse and Cannes) and film screenings at the 78th Cannes Film Festival. In short, as summed up by a local newspaper on Sunday (Var Matin, 25/5): “Telephone network down, traffic chaotic, stations blocked, businesses at a standstill: the blackout paralyzed a whole part of the territory, just as the world’s spotlights were focused on Cannes on the closing day of the 78th Film Festival.” Power was restored from 3pm onwards, and for all homes in the region only around 4:45pm.
Investigations have been opened by the Grasse and Draguignan public prosecutor’s offices following these acts of sabotage, and the Prefect of Alpes-Maritimes has obviously condemned these “serious acts of damage to the integrity of electrical infrastructures”. Below is an overview of the initial consequences of this anonymous blackout, as seen in the regional and national press on Sunday…]
Sabotage deprives 160,000 homes of electricity
Nice Matin, May 25, 2025 (excerpt)
A look back at an extraordinary day
A flickering light, an Internet modem going dead. At first, everyone thought it was a power cut in their building or neighborhood. An inconvenience that took only a few minutes to resolve. But doubt was soon replaced by disbelief.
As they left their homes, residents of the affected communities realized, through word-of-mouth, that the problem was much more extensive. In Cannes, Grasse, Antibes, Biot and Mandelieu-la-Napoule, electric gates remained frozen, forcing some people to climb over them to get out. The blackout also affected inland, with Saint-Cézaire-sur-Siagne, Fayence and Montauroux all without power.
At the bottom of buildings, small gatherings spontaneously formed to exchange the meagre information gleaned here and there, between astonishment and concern. “Will it last for days, like in Portugal and Spain?”, ‘It’s a terrorist attack’, ‘It’ll be back on before noon’…
Shops forced to close
A large number of businesses took it in turns to close their doors. Without electricity, it was impossible to operate cash registers or light interiors. Some, however, decided to stay open, but only for cash payments.
“We’re adapting, but it all depends on how long it lasts”, sighed the manager of the Carrefour store on avenue Robert-Soleau in Antibes, worried about the state of products in the fridges, but hopeful after a call from EDF telling him they’ll ‘solve the problem within the hour’. While he blocked the entrance to his stall with a stack of pallets, the store’s employee, Lily, tidied the shelves by the light of her smartphone. “We’re not at the checkout, so it gives us time to tidy up,” she says positively.
Traffic chaos, trains at a standstill
While this improbable event gave rise to impromptu aperitifs and enabled neighbors to (re-)bond, the situation was more chaotic on the roads, which were deprived of traffic lights! Traffic on some of the busiest thoroughfares led to scenes of confusion, with everyone trying to get through without bumping into each other.
Trains were at a standstill at railway stations. In Antibes, even the sea became inaccessible: with sewage treatment plants at a standstill, swimming was banned as a precaution.
Rescue services, meanwhile, were swamped. “We’re handling an avalanche of calls,” confided a fire department officer. People trapped in elevators, patients on respiratory assistance… With the telephone network disrupted, some residents turned up in person at the fire stations to raise the alarm. Vehicles were sent on rounds, trying to prioritize the most serious cases. At the main police station, officers dealt with a stream of citizens looking for answers. “In La Bocca, people come for information, but we don’t know any more than they do,” confided one officer.
Some restaurants improvised. At Istanbul Kebab in La Bocca, cooking was switched to charcoal. “No fries, but we’re still serving,” explained one employee. Not far away, at McDonald’s, the atmosphere was just as relaxed: “We’ve cleaned everything up, and now we’re playing cards”, said an employee at mid-day. In the city center, a Cannes hairdresser moved his salon to the sidewalk to continue receiving customers.
For some, this forced disconnection was an ordeal. For others, a welcome break. “A day without phone, without social networks, without TV and without demands… It feels good, in the end.”
Generators in action at the Palais des festivals
Screenings interrupted, the Palais des Festivals in the dark, theaters evacuated as far as the Cineum in La Bocca… Screenings were particularly complicated on this last day of the 78th Cannes Film Festival. The morning screening of “Sirât” by Spaniard Oliver Laxe was interrupted. The rooms of the Palais were plunged into darkness for around ten minutes.
The Festival’s flagship “switched over to an independent power supply system”, said the Festival, i.e. three generators, to “maintain all events and screenings scheduled [yesterday], under normal conditions”. And the closing ceremony went ahead as normal.
Cineum evacuated
At around 10:15 a.m., we had a blackout in the middle of a film screening at the Cineum,” says our journalist Alexandre Carini, who is present at the La Bocca cinema, which screens films in competition. They announced a general blackout in all the theaters in the complex. After ten minutes, they asked the audience to evacuate. The entire audience waited outside.
Festival professionals, including photographers and journalists, quickly converged on the Palais to try and find an Internet connection so they could continue working. A beacon in the midst of this “night” that fell on Cannes in broad daylight.
The shadow of vandalism over the Cannes Festival
Le Parisien, May 25, 2025 (excerpt)
The Festival had one last crazy day. Just before 10 a.m., everyone in the screening rooms saw the film come to a screeching halt. At lunchtime, the Festival office issued a reassuring statement: “The Palais des Festivals has switched to an independent power supply, allowing all events and screenings scheduled for today, including the closing ceremony, to continue. We thank you for your patience and understanding.”
Sci-fi scenes in hotels
Journalists and all accredited guests working on the Festival – except those trapped in elevators or inside their residences locked by electric doors – flock to the palace, the only place in town where you can plug in. It’s a race for plugs to recharge your computer or phone.
Outside, it’s a bit chaotic, at least in the hotels, including the luxury ones where scenes from science fiction seem to be playing out. Elevators don’t work, staircases and corridors are plunged into darkness. The restaurants have closed, the food is ready to be thrown out in the heat, and the same is true in the bakeries and supermarkets. By 2 p.m., the whole of Cannes is looking for something to eat. In the Palais des Festivals, the last food dispenser is taken by storm, the last pasta box disappears.
But where has Jennifer Lawrence gone?
Meanwhile, Thierry Frémaux, the general delegate, is wondering how to contact the teams of the films that will be on the prize list. There is no telephone network outside the Palais, and some of the agents themselves have lost sight of their “talents”. Jennifer Lawrence, starring in Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love”, selected in official competition, is reportedly untraceable, as is Ari Aster, director of “Eddington”, also in official competition.
Faced with this crisis situation, Thierry Frémaux instructed all agents, press attachés and distributors staying just a few minutes from the Palais to go in person to the protocol office in the early afternoon, to be informed of the need to be present in the room in the event of a selection for the prize list. In the history of the Festival, the teams of award-winning films have never been notified so late, at 3.15pm. This gives the winners just over three hours to put on their make-up, prepare speeches and get dressed.
According to our information, the jury deliberations, which take place at the Villa Domergue in the hills, were also delayed by the breakdown. Even if the jurors are traditionally cut off from the world, with their phones switched off, they still have to pass on their awards. Usually, the most well-founded rumors circulate around 1pm. But at that hour on Saturday, there was no hint. Then everything accelerates, like the last half-hour of a film. The return of power to the city, announced for midday, then for 2 p.m., gradually returned. By 5 p.m., everything seems ready. After a lot of sweat, a touch of blush. In the end, glamour always wins.
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Translated by Act for freedom now!