In Cannes, glittery film festival literally costs the earth

CANNES/ FRANCE: A fleet of energyguzzling luxury yachts and private planes, kilos of gourmet food dumped, limousines driving stars just a few hundred metres: for environmentalists, the Cannes film festival is just “one big mess”.
“There is, without a doubt, a huge amount that needs to be done by the festival organisers to make it more environmentally friendly,” said Cyril Dion, a filmmaker and climate activist.
For the 12-day extravaganza, the French Riviera town gets a glamorous makeover. But for local environmental organisation ADEN, the flip side is a lot less attractive, with the world’s biggest film festival creating phenomenal pollution.
“During the festival, the population triples, and all of these people have to travel,” said ADEN head Genevieve Huchet. “Professionals and artists fly in to the airport at Cannes or Nice, a convoy of vehicles often led by motorcycles with their sirens wailing drive them to their hotels, the huge yachts in the bay with their motors running all day in order to have electricity.”
Every day, the red carpet is changed three or four times, and the festival prints out countless thousands of flyers advertising the daily film listings, which sometimes end up in the sea. All of which amounts to “frenzied consumerism”, Huchet says.
In 2015, the festival generated an extra 1,900 tonnes of rubbish for the city of Cannes, ADEM says.
If the finger is pointed at everyday festivalgoers, those responsible for the heaviest toll are first and foremost the numerous celebrities who walk the Croisette. But more than anything, it is the constant rumble of air traffic that most bothers the residents of Cannes, which begins in earnest with the festival and continues on into the summer.
Last year, Cannes airport registered 1,700 private takeoffs and landings in May, averaging 54 a day, compared with 1,000 in April and over 2,000 during the summer months.
“The stars coming here, that's all very well, but with their noisy jets, they ruin our lives. We cannot live with the windows open at this time of year,” said Albert Dauphin, who heads ADNA local campaign group group.
“Many stars portray themselves as defenders of the environment when in reality, there are many paradoxes,” Cannes Mayor David Lisnard said.