Cannes Lions Festival Attendance Reportedly Down 20–25% This Year

Publicis Groupe's absence doesn't quite explain the drop

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CANNES, France—Attendance at this year’s Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity is down considerably in both the paid and unpaid categories, according to multiple parties at the festival who spoke to Adweek on condition of anonymity.

Three sources put the total decline between 20 and 25 percent. Official numbers from Cannes parent company Ascential state that approximately 12,000 paying individuals or delegates showed up last year.

A Cannes spokesperson declined to address these claims directly but pointed instead to growth in attendance on the client side.

“Given the volume of walk-ups throughout the festival week, which have been higher this year than ever, we’re not able to finalize our numbers as we haven’t tagged all these new attendees and will complete this post-festival,” the representative wrote.

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