The Palais des Festival is the destination for major conventions year round, most famously the Cannes International Film Festival and Cannes Lions, but also cool shows like MIPCOM for the TV Biz, MIDEM for music, and the International Duty Free Show for airplane booze. Built for the Cannes Film Festival In 1949, the Palais des Festival hosted its first Cannes Film Festival without much fanfare, or a roof, thanks to a bit of unfinished carpentry and a particularly rough storm that year. The Palais managed to weather the next two decades with only minor incident until 1968, when student and workers protests across France led to a sit-in at the Palais itself. Festival directors, including legendary French filmmakers Louis Malle and Jean-Luc Godard, got all situationist in protest, and forced the cancellation of the festival. The now-iconic Palais was renovated and replaced in 1982 and expanded in 1999. It still has a roof. And plenty of places to sit.
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