The 47th edition of the Cannes Yachting Festival – the inaugural event of the sailing season and Europe’s largest in-water boat show – is back from 10 to 15 September 2024, at the heart of the French Riviera. From the Vieux Port to Port Canto, the show, which benefits from a new marina covering 3,000 m2, will bring together the best of what the international boating sector offers and feature more than 160 new products and world previews.
With 640 exhibitors from all over the world presenting almost 700 monohull, multihull, rigid, semi-rigid, new or previously owned sail and motor boats from 5 to 50 metres long, alongside a host of the latest-generation equipment, the Cannes Yachting Festival is the unmissable event for yachting.
A great new feature this year: Port Canto, with its new Marina dedicated to Power Boats, will almost equal the Vieux Port in terms of the number of boats on display. In fact almost 340 boats will be exhibited each side of the Croisette.
For the first time, visitors will be able to go all the way round Port Canto, in a +/- 2.5 km loop. The port will offer an even clearer and simplified tour with virtually a quay, or a large area, dedicated to a type of boat.
Located between the Sailing and Yacht Brokerage & Toys areas that have been accommodated in Port Canto for seve- ral years, the new area dedicated to power boats will cover around 2,000 m2 and provide more than 300m of linear quayside to present 175 motor boats (135 in-water and 40 ashore), with rigid or semirigid hulls. A selection of outboard engines suitable for these boat sizes will also be presented next to the boats.
Port Canto will also be exhibiting 120 new sail boats over 10 metres long and 45 previously-owned large yachts from 24 metres long, exhibited respectively in the Sailing and Yacht Brokerage areas. Several traversantes (pontoons with a motorised central part) will enable visitors to go from one area to the other and small motor boats to go out for sea trials from time to time.
The new Power Boat Marina will accommodate a new dining area with almost 130 tables with a view looking out at the boats on display.
The new VIP Club, located on the roof of the Harbour Master’s Office and furnished by Roche Bobois, French manufacturer of high-end furniture and loyal partner of the exhibition, will give visitors a 180-degree view of all of Port Canto, one of the most beautiful views of the exhibition!
In the heart of the city, the Vieux Port remains the home port for the motor boat industry, with the wealth and range of what it offers. In water, 360 new boats from 13 to 50 metres long – monohulls and multihulls, with rigid or semi-rigid hulls – will be exhibited by the greatest names in French and international yachting, alongside all the equipment manufacturers and service companies that work with this industry. Large inwater yachts will be moored in their usual locations at the Jetée and the Super Yachts Extension.
Like Port Canto, the Vieux Port will also be subject to new arrangements:
- The main entrance will be moved next to the famous steps film stars walk up during the Film Festival and near the Croisette.
- The engine manufacturers that equip the mega yachts can be seen along the beach opposite the Palais. They will introduce new exhibition structures.
- A new entrance will be opened at the heart of the Pantiero (replacing the one at Quai Max Laubeuf). This entrance will be accessible to visitors, journa- lists and exhibitors.
2024 represents a year of adaptation and new opportunities for the Cannes Yachting Festival. With the works on the Vieux Port underway, we have redesigned the organisation of certain areas to replace them with other different and innovative spaces, such as the creation of a new large marina in Port Canto.
The exhibition teams have risen to the challenge, and I am very enthusiastic and proud of the next edition we will be offering our exhibitors and visitors. Once again the Cannes Yachting Festival will be a magnificent setting for all these jewels of the seas and will highlight the unique craftsmanship and experts in boat building, explains Sylvie Ernoult, director of the Cannes Yachting Festival, continuing: As is the case every year, it will be extremely easy and fast to get around, with the option of going from one port to the other thanks to free sea shuttles.
The marine industry does not escape from environmental challenges and the need to meet the sector’s decarbonisation needs. Boat builders and equipment manufacturers are slowly but surely setting a course towards ecology.
Technological and eco-responsible innovations are becoming increasingly common in the boating industry. The Cannes Yachting Festival, Europe’s largest in-water boat show, therefore naturally decided to contribute to this by highlighting the efforts and energy show exhibitors are putting into boat building, propulsion, waste management, end-of-life management, eco-design, optimisation, innovative materials, and so on, to build the future of the marine sector.
In line with the Green Route launched in 2022, this year the Cannes Yachting Festival is launching a new Innovation Route. It brings together a selection around forty technological and eco-friendly marine innovations identified by dedicated signage visitors can follow.
As has been the case every year, the Cannes Yachting Festival gets the season underway by unveiling an extremely eclectic offer. We are proud to welcome 700 boats, with 120 as world premiers, and 640 exhibitors. Once again our visitors will be able to see the crème de la crème of the marine industry, but this year we are pleased to be accommodating around 40 boats, innovations and services that are part of an eco-friendly and decarbonisation approach for the marine industry.
There is still a long way to go in making yachting clean, but an increasing number of initiatives are moving things forward and this Innovation Route is a good demonstration of this,» said Sylvie Ernoult, Director of the Cannes Yachting Festival.
