A Spectacular Start to Show Season: Cannes Yachting Festival 2023

By Frances Flannagan

Kicking off the yacht show season, Cannes Yachting Festival is set to return from the 12th-17th of September for its 46th edition. It is a highly celebrated boat show, enjoyed by over 50,000 visitors, with boats ranging from 5 metres to 50 metres on display.

Located on the two luxurious ports of Cannes, the Vieux Port and the Port Canto, the Cannes Yachting Festival has been an industry favourite since 1977. The show offers nearly 650 boats each year, with the biggest actors in the industry and their latest innovations contributing to the unparalleled, eclectic feel of the festival. 

Over 600 exhibitors attend the show, from the industry’s most celebrated boat manufacturers to luxury lifestyle brands, meaning that visitors can enjoy the full range of specialities that the industry offers. The exceptional opportunities that Cannes Yachting Festival offers is endless; not only is Port Canto set to be the largest sailing yacht exhibition in the world, there is also the opportunity to speak with leading industry experts at the Palais des Festivals to discover the latest yachting trends and gain an expert insight into industry. Cannes itself is the ultimate luxury destination, with an array of stunning beaches, spectacular shopping opportunities, and breathtaking views and scenery. 

New to this year's show is the Small Boat Area; a floating space dedicated to 8m - 11m yachts, highlighting the festival’s exceptional initiative of showcasing a diverse range of yachts to attendees. Alongside this new addition, there are a plethora of exciting areas on offer throughout the festival. The Start-Up Village, located in the heart of the sailing area at Port Canto, is home to intelligent start-ups in the nautical sector offering high added-value services and breakthrough technologies. The festival has created a ‘Green Route’ to highlight the eco-high performance solutions proposed by the exhibitors, a concept introduced to the festival last year. The 'Green Route's' success is evident as it has been brought back for the 2023 show. This feature combined with the festival’s aims to reduce its activities’ environmental impact showcases its dedication to the sustainable future of the nautical industry.

Various debuts are set to attend Cannes Yachting Festival, highlighting its important place in the industry as an event in which new yachts and innovations are showcased for the first time. Amongst these debuts is the new Riva 82 Diva, which marks a new chapter in the reimagined use of space with a flybridge of 40 square metres. The wallywhy150 is another attendee, with a length of 24.1m and an exceptional execution of design, with interior volumes being unparalleled for a yacht of her size, along with a 270 degree view in the owners cabin.

Yachts boasting impressive design features are not the only vessels to be making their debut; the Magellano 60 built by Azimut represents a new vessel that enjoys long voyages at sea in an economical way. Built on the brand's second-generation dual-mode hull, it delivers up to 20 percent less fuel consumption than yachts of a similar size. The range of yachts that attend Cannes Yachting Festival highlight the range of expertise that are showcased: from impeccable design to breakthrough technology. 

The festival is bound to be a showstopping start to the yachting show season, and the forty years of experience behind the event set the precedent for another remarkable show at Cannes in September. 

"Thanks to the renewed confidence of our exhibitors, this 2023 edition is looking very good with similar forecasts to the previous year, i.e. 600 exhibitors, more than 650 boats and 140 previews."

Sylvie Ernoult, Director of the Yachting Festival

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"Thanks to the renewed confidence of our exhibitors, this 2023 edition is looking very good with similar forecasts to the previous year, i.e. 600 exhibitors, more than 650 boats and 140 previews."

Sylvie Ernoult, Director of the Yachting Festival
By Frances Flannagan