It was reported yesterday that the organisers of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity were planning to go ahead with the event in 2021.
Today, the organisers have confirmed the rumours, revealing the event will go ahead in the third week of June this year as an in-person event. The awards will recognise work from both 2020 and 2021, following the postponement of last year’s event.
“For more than 65 years Cannes Lions has set the benchmark for great creative work,” said Lions Managing Director Simon Cook, “and after the disappointment of postponing the 2020 Lions awards, we look forward to presenting the work to the Juries in June. We’ve been delighted by the diverse spread of work that has emerged in our regional awards – Eurobest, Dubai Lynx and Spikes Asia – and we look forward to being inspired by the work that will set the global standard across two years at Cannes Lions.”
Lions chairman Phillip Tjomas addresses the obvious concerns around travel, citing the current vaccine rollout as a potential solution.
“While travel is currently constrained, the availability of multiple vaccines offers hope that we can be together in June, even if we need to limit the numbers of delegates who can safely attend. We will continue to carefully monitor the situation, and maintain our regular communications with the authorities in France, but there are many other large international events planned for the same timeline, and it’s clear from talking to the global industry that everybody is very keen to come together again.”