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Mipcom show goes on despite flood

MIPCOM: The annual Mipcom market will start in Cannes as scheduled on Monday morning, despite extensive damage across the town caused by Saturday night’s freak storm.

With areas of the Palais and exhibition tents affected by the flash flood which overwhelmed the town over the weekend, there had been talk of Monday being washed out and the event starting on Tuesday.

But organiser Reed Midem worked from the early hours of Sunday morning to tackle the problems and swiftly confirmed Mipcom would begin as normal tomorrow.

Laurine Garaude, director of Reed Midem’s Television Division, said: “The whole Mip team, the Palais staff and our Cannes partners are working non-stop to limit the disruption caused by this exceptional situation.”

The storm began around 20.00 on Saturday night and two months’ worth of rain fell on Cannes in the following two hours, overturning cars, flooding ground floor restaurants and shops and turning roads into fast flowing rivers.

The storm claimed 16 lives across South East France and the mayor of Cannes David Lisnard was quoted by local media saying: “Some cars were carried off into the sea. We have rescued a lot of people, and we must now be vigilant against looting.”

Flood damage in the Martinez Hotel has led to the suspension of the MipJunior screenings which are now available online. Sunday’s MipJunior conferences were transferred to the upper level of the Palais des Festivals.

MipJunior’s opening night party descended into chaos as delegates crowded into the beach marquee opposite the Martinez to take shelter from the storm. However, the tent soon became overwhelmed as the rain fell harder and party-goers were urged to move out and brave the elements.

The timing of the deluge left many delegates who’d arrived during the weekend stranded in the town’s restaurants and bars.

At Ma Nolan’s, where British and Australian executives had gathered to watch the Rugby World Cup, TV execs from companies including Zodiak and Endemol became stranded for hours as a flash flood encircled the Irish Bar.

Spirits remained high despite intermittent electricity and lighting, until staff announced that the bar was cut off, at which point several execs took off their shoes and socks, rolled up their jeans, and waded home.

The disruption continued into Sunday morning with some exhibitors unable to access their stands and the press and media centre closed. Wifi access has been down across the town for much of the day.

Delegates arriving on Saturday evening were met with a chaotic scene at Nice airport. With roads washed away, the A8 highway impassable and all trains into and out of Cannes cancelled, execs were forced to scramble over the last few remaining hotel rooms in Nice.

Zig Zag productions CEO Danny Fenton was one of around 20 British execs who arrived on the last British Airways flight of the evening only to spend the rest of the night hunkered down in the lobby of a nearby hotel.

Other flights were delayed, cancelled or diverted to Lyon although normal service had resumed into and out of Nice by Sunday morning.

Russell Hicks, president of content development and production at Nickelodeon, endured a torrid journey back to Cannes after being driven out of town for dinner alongside his fellow keynote speaker, iCarly creator Dan Schneider.

Hicks and Schneider were delivered back at their hotel at 05.00 this morning after their journey home was thwarted as roads into town were shut off by authorities and alternative hotels filled up.

“We didn’t realise what was really happening until we were driving home. There was a car sitting in the middle of the road with nobody in it and there was flood damage everywhere. Then all the roads started to close. We ended up driving all over France for about seven hours trying to find our way back to the hotel,” Hicks told C21.

Mercifully, a more seasonal warm sunshine and gentle breeze returned on Sunday as the clean up got underway in earnest.

Reed Midem said tonight, however, that Monday’s traditional opening night red carpet reception has been cancelled, with the Hotel Martinez not in a position to host the event.

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