I cannot believe another year has passed since my last Cannes adventure – everything was so familiar, as if I had only left just a few months ago. They say that time flies when you’re having fun, so surely it’s a good sign that my life seems to be flying past at the speed of light? It’s a scary feeling at the same time though.
This time knowing full well what to expect, I approached my second Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity with open arms and enjoyed myself even more than the previous year. Comfortable that I was across everything, each day was as fabulous as the last, yet at the same time it all seemed much more clam and relaxing than the year before. I’m sure it all came down to my own state of mind, as I felt a lot more confident and relaxed – I’m already looking forward to next year.
We arrived on the Friday afternoon to glorious sunshine and after a quick trip to the hotel and a brief stint on the beach, we met up with three colleagues for our luxurious dinner at Baoli – perhaps one of the most gloriously tacky places on earth, where they sell bottles of champagne priced at 40,000 and the waiters light the bar on fire and clap their hands at random intervals throughout the evening. Home to the French Riviera’s elite, Russian oil heirs and girls with botoxed faces and dresses that don’t even attempt to cover their behinds. Great people watching!
Saturday we ventured down to the Palais des Festivals after a sunny morning spent soaking up the atmosphere, where the festival kicked off with the first Young Lions competition. This year I was presenting on Getty Images, training people how to use our website. I was a little nervous at the beginning, but by the end of the festival you couldn’t get me away from the wee podium. After such a start, it of course was mojito time (the first of many), which we had at one of my favourite places in Cannes.
I won’t take you through each day, as they all merge into one crazy work hard/ play hard week-and-a-bit of utter chaos and exquisite meals. The entire experience is just exhausting, although amazing at the same time. It takes a good week to recover, but people unite in their exhaustion and share rueful smiles at the airport on Sunday when they take refuge beneath dark sun-glasses. It is crazy, but I love it.
Highlights include the opening and closing gala, which is like the most beautiful wedding you could ever imagine, if budget was never an issue. When the DJ finishes at 2am you’re flabbergasted, convinced they’ve got their wires crossed – it can’t possibly be 2pm. Other options exist of course, like the infamous Gutter Bar which sees people sleeping on the side of the road come 9am when you’re up for the next day’s work. I avoided this place like the plague as I always had a sneaky suspicion that one you gave in to this, you’d never get to bed. It’s so much fun, you really could just keep going all night.
The seminars are so incredible as well, with companies competing with thought-provoking discussion, laden with celebrity faces such as Bill Clinton, Matthew Morrison, Blondie, Ronaldo, Selena Gomez and Forest Whittaker to name a small few. I didn’t manage to see as many as I would have liked, given it was pretty full on, but I did sneak a peek at a few key seminars.
I’m sure it would be quite hard to come back to reality, but really my life right now is from anything real. With seven back-to-back weekends of pure fun in the European sun planned, reality is far from my mind!The Sunday night showcase is like the Oscars of advertising and its awesome to see the best of the best from all over the world. Here’s one of my favourites from this year, from a French television channel, which I’m sure you’ll all enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edeu4mz_tzg
Love to all and I really do wish you were here. $50 cocktails are delightful, but they’d be so much more sweeter if I were enjoying them with my beloveds.
xx
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