The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has decided to reschedule its awards to Oct. 26 – Oct. 30 from June 22 – June 26. This is in light of the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic currently engulfing the world.
The festival said in a statement that the decision follows “much deliberation” with partners, customers, public health officials, French authorities and the mayoral office of Cannes where the event is held annually. Cannes said it would continue to have conversations with all involved as it adopts its contingency plans. Read the statement below:
“Cannes Lions announces today that the annual Festival of Creativity will not take place in June as previously planned. We are now engaging our contingency plans for the previously published October dates.
The decision comes following much deliberation with our partners and customers, as well as, consultation with public health officials, the mayoral office of Cannes and the French Authorities. We acknowledge the challenging circumstances facing us all as a community – we have and continue to be in deep consultation with many of our customers and partners as we adopt our contingency plans. The health, safety and wellbeing of our customers, employees, sponsors and partners remains our first priority.
Cannes Lions will continue to monitor the rapidly changing developments associated with the Coronavirus outbreak. Although we have sound mitigation plans, we shall continue to monitor this situation carefully and continue to engage closely with our customers, as we start to work in collaboration to ensure we can recognize the world’s best creativity in 2020.
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The Cannes Lions, founded in 1954 and held annually in Cannes, France, is the world’s biggest awards show and conference for the creative and marketing community.
The festival said today it is focused on “planning the festival and preparing for the Lions” and remains committed to “the extraordinary spread of international creative work and its contribution to the development of people, business and society.”
“The global situation is dynamic and changing rapidly, we felt it was critical to provide visibility on June as soon as possible,” Cannes Lions Chairman Philip Thomas said. “We will continue to liaise closely with our customers as we develop our plans.”
“Our community is facing unprecedented challenges and collaboration has never been more important,” Simon Cook, managing director of Cannes, added. “We are focused now on planning the festival – and our beating heart, the Lions – to ensure our community is able to recognize the extraordinary work it contributes to business, organizations and society.”
The decision is not unexpected as the industry has seen every other major event postponed and rescheduled. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to worsen globally, and especially in places like Europe. Cannes had also warned its community earlier this month that it could shift the event to October, and would alert everyone no later than April 15.
SOURCE: Cannes Lions
