Cannes Lions 2025 - Event Review By Norman Busigu (Official Press)
Ça Va? Bienvenue Aux Lions De Cannes!
When I compose my overviews of events as official Press, I do so in real time and usually have it published/shared out to the world within a few days of said event happening. As a journalist, time sensitivity is everything to me: capturing the essence of the event and expressing it through the medium of the written word as close as possible to my lived truth (while balancing this against objective reporting), is at the core of how I write.
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity however is an especially unique exception, as I have honestly never experienced anything like it in my life. Having took place from 16th-20th June 2025, it has taken me months to draft this overview and reach a place where I can share it publicly… truth be told, it has been very difficult to articulate the feelings I felt, and a real challenge to explain the seemingly infinite regress of things I saw and did, succinctly.
It being my first time going, it has since, in all honesty, changed the way I look at, understand, and move through society on a day-to-day basis. This write up can only at best give you a slight glimpse behind the curtains of what Cannes Lions offers. My key takeaway for anyone reading this: if you are even remotely interested, do what you can to attend – and there are numerous ways to do so.
“If It’s A Renown International Festival Of Creativity, Why Is It I’ve Never Heard Of It Before?”
Before exercising reflective practise to share with you my account of this festival, I think it is of critical important that I try to set out (as clearly as possible) what Cannes Lions actually is for the layman who may be reading this. I say this because, many that I’ve spoken to have absolutely no idea what Cannes Lions is, or if they do, there is a cloak of ambiguity as to what actually happens at the festival. This mystique which surrounds it is interesting, given that it has existed for nearly a century: it came into existence in 1954 first appearing in Venice, before finding its new home at Cannes in 1984. Today it is regarded as the world’s biggest celebration of history-making creativity, and is home to the world’s most prestigious advertising awards.
But the illusive aura which this festival appears to hold makes sense if you think about the context in which it operates and the crowd of which it typically attracts. This is a festival which primarily functions to facilitate the convergence of powers that be within the marketing, advertising and creative communications industries for networking, etc. Concurrently, prestigious award ceremonies, panel sessions, workshops and the colloquially dubbed “fringe events” all exist adjacent to the formal festival lineup of events. In short, a lot happens in the one week of the festival – more than one person can handle. Which is why many I observed, attend in teams and strategically divvy up their time and attention to cover as much ground as possible and to extract as much information and new connections within this limited window of time. Within this, taking a laptop/notepad to the panel sessions and actually making a record of the information being received, as opposed to only recording 10 second videos for social media.
As Phil Duncan (the Global Design Officer for Procter & Gamble) expressed, “Cannes Lions is the epicentre for the world’s best creativity” – and this is true from multiple perspectives. From the exceptional calibre of creatives/entrepreneurs/thought leaders present, from Serena Williams to Jimmy Fallon, to representatives from global titans in the creative and advertising industries such as Neal Mohan (YouTube’s CEO) to Mathilde Delhoume (LVMH’s Global Chief Brand Officer for LVMH), to the award nominees themselves. The ilk of those attending were truly among the gifted and exceptional of their industry/discipline, of whom what I felt were more aligned with the (what I can describe as) 1%’ers of society, and those operating at the apex of their given industry/practise. Naturally, these being small circles, it makes sense why your average joe may know about these festivities that happen every year.
Panel talk including Serena Williams
A Beautiful Blur of Brilliance, Bright Lights and Big Business!
Located at the stunning Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, the very venue in of itself against the backdrop of the French Riviera could receive a write up in of itself as to how breathtakingly beautiful they are. If you are able to walk through the festival grounds, be it as a festival passholder or not, you will quickly see and feel that excellence is the standard, not the exception. Cannes Lions in many respects is an incubator and point of convergence for the world’s leading and emerging talents. And do not downplay the importance of you who meet –since attending, certain faces have become reoccurring characters that I have seen again at other global festivals, and others are truly growing into real friends that I am forming a deep connection with.
Norman Busigu outside the Claude Debussy Theatre
There is a distinct feeling in the atmosphere as you approach the Palais for the first time – the grand red carpets, the majestic theatre halls, to the swarming sounds of accents and dialects from all over the world. It’s almost ethereal. Navigating the festival is like finding your way through a honeycomb of sorts – its an intricately designed moving puzzle that takes time to make sense of, as there’s so much going on – from the mix of pop ups, B2B activations, festival panel talks, soirees (some of which are on yachts) and everything in-between!
The honest truth is that all of this can be a very overwhelming whirlwind - sensory overload is a real thing, as there are so many things happening simultaneously that will most likely catch your attention. Whether it’s trying to navigate the expansive list of overlapping talks and networking mixers, attending the activations/fringe events, talking to someone you’ve met, or just finding a moment for yourself - it Is a lot. Compounded with the 25+ degree heat, staying hydrated and regular taking breaks are absolutely essential, or your body can literally begin to shut down.
From my experience, it’s a unique environment in which, the usual societal markers of race and class which can (in most constructs) impact one’s movement or ascension, seemed to not to be prevalent here. Now what do I mean by this: when you are in an environment where most of whom are the top performers of their given industries and representatives of some of the most influential corporations and conglomerates, by virtue of this, you automatically gain respect and are assumed to be of this tier (to some degree). It’s not necessarily something that you have to earn or prove – you being there is the win in of itself.
Where the magic kicks in, is not knowing whether that the person stood or sat next to you could be the master key needed to unlock something in your life which takes you to the next level. And the exciting this is that this very possibility is one mere conversation away. The onus is on you to make something of this melting pot of opportunities, where time is of the essence. During this week, you have a very limited window of time to intentionally connect with others and learn from industry leaders of the fields that are most relevant to you. You cant be everywhere at once, so being intentional with your time and energy are crucial. It’s a delicate balance of seizing the moment and leaving enough time in your schedule for time to breathe, so that you can catch these almost serendipitous moments. And that’s the magic of it all – the fact that you cant plan any of this or what will happen.
Fringe event including speaker Jason Harvey - EVP, Head of BET+
Increasing DEI at Cannes LIONS
The Cannes Lions festival are making great progress in increasing access to the festival, particularly for those from unrepresented backgrounds. To this effect, The Equity, Representation and Accessibility Programme is an initiative created by LIONS, aimed at fostering a diverse and inclusive representation of talent within the creative industry at Cannes Lions 2025. Committed to supporting underrepresented and undeserved communities, up to €2m worth of complimentary passes every year are granted now. As someone from an ethnic minority background (being British-Ugandan), this is great to see, and I look forward to seeing how such initiatives evolve in years to come.
The focus group session between My Runway Group and Cannes Lions
During the 2025 festival, I was part of a small focus group led by My Runway Group along with Cannes Lions Chief Growth Officer and other from their team, to discuss the lack of African representation at the festival, and what can be done to improve this. We explored the challenges Africans face i.e. obtaining visas, financial struggles in raising funding to actually attend, and beyond this, actually navigating the festival upon arrival, and what can be done to enable us to make the most of the opportunity. An honorable mention needs to be given to Inkwell – a DEI dedicated activation that held great curated events in this context!
How Does One Actually Attend?
There are various ways in which one can attend the festival:
Pass holder: there are numerous passes that you can either apply for (via scholarships/access programmes etc) or simply purchase one. The type of pass you have will grant you varying levels of access within the festival - for example, being Press means that you do not have to queue for the talks/events. More information can be found on their website. Being a pass holder will enable you to access the festival itself – namely attend the daily award ceremonies, daily panel talks and mixers.
Non pass holder: naturally, you won’t have access to the official festival proceedings, but you can attend the fringe events and directly network at the B2B activations and events. To explain what this means: along the strip of the beach and in the surrounding areas are activations hosted by global brands from Meta to Amazon. At these activations are daily pop ups, panel talks (for instance the likes of Issa Rae and Deborah Lee speaking at HarbourView Yatch), intimate events, freebies in plenty, and in some cases performances. Of note Music/TV mogul 50 cent performed at Snapchat and Grammy award winning artist Cardi B performed at Spotify. If you intend to attend the fringe events, make sure to register prior to the festival start date, to ensure you can receive a wristband enabling you to enter.
Lucky Daye Performance at the HarbourView Yatch Soiree
