Cannes diaries: Pallavi Chakravarti on why nothing beats your first time at the Palais

Cannes: As I leave Cannes today, I realise that the first time I came here was perhaps the best time I ever had here. I'm not what one would call a festival veteran - this is my fourth time in 22 years. But yes, I am familiar with how it works now, and I can tell you that nothing compares to the magic of that first visit. One can rediscover the festival time and time again, but nothing holds a candle to discovering it. So if you have not been here yet, rejoice. And don’t worry about hacks and tips and tricks that will make you act like a pro. You needn’t be one. Be a newbie and own it. 

I remember how the scale of it had pretty much blown me away. We keep saying, “Oh, advertising is such a tiny industry.” The crowds here will make you rethink that notion. The idea that you are part of an ecosystem that is bigger than anything you’ve ever imagined will likely make you feel both insignificant and proud in equal measure. 

I had no idea how to navigate the main building. I’d just heard my seniors before me throwing the word “Palais” around casually, as easily as they said “palak paneer” or “pagal hai kya.” So this Palais, it turned out, was the beating heart of Cannes Lions. It’s where the work is, where the talks and guest sessions are, where head honchos and trainees rub shoulders - a proper labyrinth, but a well-marked one, so even someone as navigationally challenged as I was able to get around easily. 

Then there were the various stages. Lumiere, I learnt how to pronounce it on my very first visit. DeBussy, I think I got it right this time round. Rotonde - that’s for another time, whenever that may be. I recollect poring over the program, wondering which sessions to attend, torn between more than a few, wishing for more than 24 hours in a day. Things that put me off today - the queuing up, the overcrowded eateries, were back then just more feathers in the cap of this ginormous entity that lives and breathes. 

You will walk till your feet fall off, you will truly understand the value of comfortable footwear, you will take sly selfies near the red carpet staircase, you will enjoy the food until you don’t, you will develop a taste for rose, you will be jealous of the winners, you will cheer the winners, you will take as many photos of the case boards as the croisette, you will explore the old town and take day trips to places called Eze and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, you will get lost and your phone battery will die and then you’ll cry a little when you find your tiny hotel room again. But most importantly, you will fall a little more in love with advertising than you already were. 

I hope many of you get to do this in the years to come. I hope the festival sees fewer glittering yacht parties attended by the who’s who of networks and more young blood. Fewer big daddies and mommies and more greenhorns. I find it a little counterintuitive that, for the most part, the ones who continue to frequent Cannes are the ones who’ve been coming here every year since Alexander the Great was a boy. Cause the first timers will take more home with them than the regulars ever will.