Cannes Lions to hold an in-person festival in 2021

The organisers of Cannes Lions have announced that after the postponement of last year's awards, “the juries will be judging both years' of work and awarding Lions for 2020 and 2021.”

The awarding of the Lions will take place as usual during the third week of June 2021 and “the plan is to judge and present the work in person in Cannes, France, during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which is now open for delegate registrations.”

Simon Cook, Lions managing director said: "For more than 65 years Cannes Lions has set the benchmark for great creative work and after the disappointment of postponing the 2020 Lions awards, we look forward to presenting the work to the Juries in June.”

“We've been delighted by the diverse spread of work that has emerged in our regional awards - Eurobest, Dubai Lynx and Spikes Asia - and we look forward to being inspired by the work that will set the global standard across two years at Cannes Lions."

"While travel is currently constrained, the availability of multiple vaccines offers hope that we can be together in June, even if we need to limit the numbers of delegates who can safely attend," said Lions Chairman Phillip Thomas.

He further said, “We will continue to carefully monitor the situation, and maintain our regular communications with the authorities in France, but there are many other large international events planned for the same timeline, and it's clear from talking to the global industry that everybody is very keen to come together again.”

Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, the premier event of the creative communications industry was cancelled last year due to the Coronavirus pandemic despite a postponement from its original dates of 22 - 26 June 2020 to 26 - 30 October 2020.