September on the French Riviera has a rhythm all of its own, and for close to five decades the Cannes Yachting Festival has set the tempo. The 2026 edition, its 49th, opens on 8 September and runs until the 13th across the two harbours that give the show its shape, the Vieux Port and Port Canto. Billed as Europe’s largest in-water boat show, it once again turns Cannes into the working capital of the yachting world for six days.
Around 680 exhibitors will present a fleet of more than 700 boats, from nimble 5-metre craft to 50-metre flagships, alongside close to 150 world premieres launched afloat and ashore. Organisers expect 56,000 international visitors to file along the quays.
This year also brings a change on the bridge, a rerouted visitor circuit and a broadened programme of awards. For anyone who tracks where the industry is heading, the opening fixture of the season remains the one to watch.
A new hand on the helm
Constance Brément takes charge of the festival this year, with a stated aim of widening its international reach and sharpening the experience on the ground, drawing on a rich background in boating and luxury. The organisation promises the result to be a more fluid, immersive and outward-looking show.
That ambition lands at a fine moment for the sector, which the festival happily casts as a barometer for the industry at large. With the energy transition gathering pace across the water, the event is the place where builders and equipment makers get to show their best work first.
“Our mission is to offer an exceptional setting to promote the innovations of the sector and launch the season. The quality of our offer, the commitment of our exhibitors and the arrival of qualified visitors from all over the world are the foundations of the success of the Cannes Yachting Festival.”
Constance Brément, Director, Cannes Yachting Festival
Two ports, one loop
The Vieux Port has been reworked so that a new pier now carries an exhibition of yachts afloat, while the largest vessels enjoy a fresh, more spacious berth along the Quai Max Laubeuf. The biggest hulls finally get the elbow room they deserve, and the quaysides flow all the better for it.
Over at Port Canto, the whole site can now be walked as an uninterrupted loop of 2.5 kilometres. Two complementary sites sit either side of the Croisette, linked by a maritime shuttle running every 15 minutes, so nothing worth seeing is ever out of reach.
The motoring side of the Croisette
The Vieux Port is where the engines gather, and it makes a grand first impression. Motor yachts from twelve to fifty metres line the water, joined by superyachts, flybridges, trawlers and motor catamarans, the latter grouped in a lively Power Cat Village on the Pantiero. Equipment manufacturers and service providers fill the berths between the hulls, so there is always something to admire.
It is a section built for slow, appreciative wandering. Sea trials let a visitor feel a hull settle onto the plane rather than take a broker’s word for it, and the sheer spread of tonnage on show gives a warm, confident read on where the motoring market sits this year.
Cross to Port Canto and the Espace Voile assembles the world’s largest fleet of new yachts over ten metres shown afloat, some 120 of them, from crisp performance cruisers to serious blue-water tonnage.
The Power Boat Marina gathers 180 dayboats up to thirteen metres, the Yacht Brokerage sector runs unusually deep this year with more than 45 boats above twenty-five metres, and the Toys area lays on the tenders and watersports kit that keep everyone aboard smiling once the anchor is down.
Innovation takes the wheel
For its 49th edition, the Cannes Yachting Festival is bringing back the Innovation Route and launching the 2nd edition of its Innovation Route Awards. This setup identifies and highlights the most innovative and sustainable solutions exhibitors are presenting, thanks to a dedicated route through the Vieux Port and Port Canto. It is open to all exhibitors and rewards the most outstanding projects in the industry.
The Innovation Route threads a dedicated trail through both ports, flagging the most advanced and sustainable ideas on display, and returns with a second edition of its Innovation Route Awards. A jury of international professionals and journalists will hand out four prizes during the exhibitors’ cocktail on Tuesday 8 September.
The categories cover Best Navigation Equipment, Best Sustainable Product, Best Innovative Boat and Best CSR Initiative, a spread that rewards clever engineering and cleaner operation in equal measure. Better still, the show hosts the finalists’ announcement for the Best of Boat Awards 2026 for the very first time, staged in the VIP Club at Port Canto. Two ceremonies in the opening days give the new season a spirited send-off.