Cannes Yachting Festival 2026

For six days every September, the Bay of Cannes becomes the largest in-water yacht display in Europe. The Cannes Yachting Festival — run by RX (Reed Exhibitions) since 1977 — spreads roughly 600 boats and yachts across two ports on the Croisette: Vieux Port hosts sailing yachts, multihulls and motor yachts up to about 35 metres, while Port Pierre Canto, a fifteen-minute walk east along the seafront, hosts the superyacht segment from roughly 22 metres up to the biggest brokerage-fleet launches of the year. Around 50,000 visitors work the two ports across the show.

The 2026 edition runs across early–mid September 2026 (Reed confirms exact dates each autumn for the following year; historically the show falls on the second week of September, Tuesday through Sunday). Unlike the MYBA Charter Show in Sanremo or the Mediterranean Yacht Show in Nafplio — both strictly trade-only — Cannes Yachting Festival is open to both trade and public. Charter clients are not only welcome; the show is genuinely one of the few public venues in the world where you can walk an 80-metre superyacht's saloon before deciding to charter it next season.

The page below is built around how a charter client should actually approach the week: whether to charter a yacht as your hospitality base for the show itself — Cannes hotel inventory disappears months out and rates double for show week — or to use the September week as the entry point into a wider French Riviera or Italian Riviera charter, and how the show's September date positions it as the natural shoulder-season opening for the second-best cruising window of the Mediterranean year.

The first reason charter clients book a yacht around the Cannes Yachting Festival is the most practical one: Cannes is full. The Croisette hotels — the Carlton, the Martinez, the Majestic, the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hôtel Martinez, the Le Cinq — are typically at capacity for show week by the previous April, with rates running at roughly double the standard September rate. The Saint-Honorat and Cap d'Antibes properties are similarly committed. For visitors who haven't booked twelve months out, the practical alternatives shrink to inland Cannes (a 15–30 minute drive from La Croisette) or out toward Mougins and Mandelieu.

A yacht of any reasonable size solves all of that in a single decision. The yacht is your hotel — accommodation, dining, lounge space, meeting space — and your tender is the shuttle between the yacht and the two show entrances at Vieux Port and Port Canto. The yacht can be moored inside one of the show ports (limited berths, booked months ahead through the festival itself), in Port Vauban Antibes (15 nm west, the brokerage hub of the French Riviera and the standard alternative), in Port Hercule Monaco (15 nm east), or simply at anchor in the Bay of Cannes off the Croisette with tender shuttle in. Most charter weeks during the festival use one of these patterns.

The second reason is the show itself. Unlike the trade-only MYBA Charter Show in Sanremo or the Antigua Charter Yacht Show in December, Cannes Yachting Festival is open to charter clients. The show is where the year's new launches premiere in Europe — the new builds from Sunseeker, Princess, Ferretti, Sanlorenzo, Benetti, CRN, Lürssen, Heesen, Feadship, Wally, Wally Sail, Solaris, Nautor Swan, and the multihull yards Lagoon, Sunreef, Bali, Fountaine Pajot — and walking those decks is the single best way to understand what you might want to charter on the next Mediterranean season. Most builders run charter-broker briefings alongside the public hours. Boatcrowd's brokerage team works the show across all six days — first-hand assessments of the new launches that will be on the charter market the following summer feed directly into our recommendations.

The third reason is the cruising itself. Early September is the second-best week of the French Riviera year — water still at 23–24°C, daytime highs in the high 20s, the peak-summer crowds gone from the headline anchorages, and the headline restaurants and beach clubs still open for their last weeks of the season. The Bay of Cannes, the Lérins Islands, Cap d'Antibes, Saint-Tropez, and the Italian Riviera are all within easy cruising of a yacht based at the festival. Many charter clients combine the show with a five-to-seven-day cruise either side of the event.

Booking timing for Cannes Yachting Festival splits into two separate decisions: the yacht itself, and where the yacht will physically sit during the show. The yacht question follows the standard French Riviera shoulder-season pattern; the berth question is much tighter and has to be solved first.

Practical timeline for the 2026 festival week:

• Twelve months out (September of the previous year): The window in which to lock in a show-week berth inside Vieux Port or Port Pierre Canto if you want to be physically inside the festival footprint. Berths during the show are sold by Reed Expositions and the port authorities directly; demand exceeds supply every year and the festival's exhibitor and visitor berths are filled by the previous May.
• Six to nine months out (December–March): The window for booking a yacht of any size at Port Vauban Antibes, Port Hercule Monaco, or Marina Baie des Anges — the realistic alternatives for clients who can't secure a show-port berth. This is also the window in which Boatcrowd typically commits Mediterranean charter inventory to the September show week.
• Three to six months out (April–July): Standard-week shoulder pricing on French Riviera yachts is generally available. Headline new-launch yachts being shown publicly for the first time are typically committed by this point; standard charter fleet inventory remains good.
• Four to eight weeks out: Last-minute availability on smaller yachts (under 30 metres) is realistic. Anchorage in the Bay of Cannes off the Croisette is free and unrestricted; only the inside-port berths require advance planning.

The Bay of Cannes has the deepest concentration of yacht infrastructure on the French Riviera after Antibes. The two festival ports are inside the show footprint itself; everything else sits within a short cruise. Anchoring in the Bay of Cannes is free and unrestricted across the year, including during the show, which makes a yacht-based show visit considerably more flexible than the equivalent hotel-based one.

Vieux Port (Cannes Old Port) — sailing yachts & smaller motor yachts

The original Cannes harbour and the festival's primary sailing-yacht venue. Vieux Port hosts the multihulls (Sunreef, Lagoon, Fountaine Pajot, Bali), the larger sailing fleet (Wally, Solaris, Nautor Swan, Hallberg-Rassy), and motor yachts up to roughly 35 metres. Berthing inside Vieux Port during the show is sold out twelve months ahead; outside the festival weeks Vieux Port is the natural Cannes Bay base for sailing and catamaran charters.

Port Pierre Canto — superyacht segment

The newer marina at the eastern end of La Croisette, a fifteen-minute walk from Vieux Port. Port Canto is the festival's superyacht venue, displaying motor yachts from roughly 22 metres up to the biggest brokerage launches of the year. Berthing inside Port Canto during show week is exhibitor-allocated; outside the festival, Port Canto runs as a regular high-end marina with very limited transient availability.

Port Vauban — Antibes, French Riviera

The largest yacht marina on the French Riviera and the standard alternative when the Cannes show ports are full. Port Vauban handles superyachts to 165 metres on its deep-water IYCA pontoon and sits roughly 15 nautical miles east of Cannes (about a forty-minute cruise; substantially faster than the equivalent road journey through Antibes-Cannes traffic during show week). Most charter clients basing in Antibes for the festival shuttle to and from Cannes by tender, helicopter, or chauffeured car depending on day.

Port Hercule — Monaco

About 30 nautical miles east of Cannes — too far for daily tender shuttle, but practical as a base for clients who plan to attend the Cannes show on two or three of the six days and use Monaco as their primary base across a longer Riviera programme. Port Hercule is best booked early; during Cannes Yachting Festival the Monaco berths fill up too, particularly the fortnight before Monaco Yacht Show.

Port Gallice & Marina Baie des Anges — Juan-les-Pins, Cagnes-sur-Mer

Two practical smaller marinas between Cannes and Nice. Port Gallice in Juan-les-Pins is a 25-minute drive from La Croisette and handles yachts to 50 metres on its outer pontoon. Marina Baie des Anges in Villeneuve-Loubet handles up to 50 metres and is the closest substantial marina to Nice airport — relevant for clients flying in for specific show days rather than basing on the yacht across the full week.

Anchorage — Bay of Cannes / off La Croisette

The simplest and most flexible option for yachts of all sizes — anchor in the Bay of Cannes off the Croisette and tender into Vieux Port or Quai Saint-Pierre directly. Cannes Bay is sheltered from prevailing summer winds and the holding ground is good; depths range from 8–25 metres across the standard anchorage zone. Most charter yachts that don't have a confirmed inside-port berth default to this pattern for show week.

The natural way to think about a Cannes Yachting Festival charter is as a French Riviera shoulder-season week with a major event embedded in the middle of it. The show absorbs two or three days of attention; the rest of the week is cruising, lunch anchorages, and the headline restaurants of the Côte d'Azur. The September weather window is reliably excellent — the Mistral has settled, the water remains at 23–24°C, and the post-August traffic at the most desirable anchorages has thinned out.

• Lérins Islands — Sainte-Marguerite & Saint-Honorat. Fifteen minutes' cruise from the Croisette, the Lérins Islands are the natural lunch anchorage for any Cannes-based charter. Sainte-Marguerite has the Fort Royal (where the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned) and the wooded paths; Saint-Honorat is owned by the Cistercian monastery and produces one of the more interesting Provençal wines.
• Cap d'Antibes & Juan-les-Pins. A short cruise east of Cannes — the Cap d'Antibes anchorages off Plage de la Garoupe and the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc are the classic French Riviera lunch stops. The Eden-Roc's poolside service for tendered-in guests during the September festival period is a defining Riviera experience.
• Saint-Tropez. A two-and-a-half-hour cruise west from Cannes — practical as a day stop, ideal as a one-night reposition during a longer charter. By mid-September Saint-Tropez has shed the August crowds and the beach clubs at Pampelonne are running at their most enjoyable level of the year.
• Villefranche, Cap Ferrat & Monaco. A short cruise east of Cannes — Villefranche Bay, Cap Ferrat's anchorages off the Grand-Hôtel, and Monaco itself. Clients combining Cannes Yachting Festival with Monaco Yacht Show typically reposition across this stretch in the middle weekend.
• Italian Riviera — Portofino & San Fruttuoso. About a six-hour cruise east of Cannes — overnight passage, anchor in Portofino Bay, lunch at Da Puny, swim at San Fruttuoso's monastery cove, walk the Cinque Terre footpaths. The natural extension for charter weeks of eight days or longer.
• Corsica. An overnight crossing south from Cannes — Calvi, Saint-Florent, and the western Corsican coast are within reach for charters built around a longer programme. September water clarity at the Bonifacio cliffs and the Lavezzi Islands is among the best of the European season.

The Croisette restaurant scene runs at peak intensity during Cannes Yachting Festival — the rooms below are the ones that consistently anchor charter clients' show-week dining schedule. Reservations at the headline names should be made at the time of charter booking; your charter team's concierge handles this as part of the service.

The Mediterranean charter season runs on aperitivos, sundowner cocktails, and post-dinner liqueurs. The bars below are the standing institutions across the Western Mediterranean charter circuit; brand-sponsored pop-ups at the headline hotels rotate each summer.

September in Cannes is a transition month — the August beach-club programmes are wrapping up, but Cannes Yachting Festival itself drives a concentrated calendar of builder, broker, and charter-house parties across the six show days. The list below covers the standing venues; the brand-sponsored programme (Sunseeker, Ferretti, Sanlorenzo, Wally, Heesen, and the larger broker houses each run their own evenings) rotates year to year.

• Bâoli Cannes. The defining Cannes nightclub — harbour-front, just east of Vieux Port, running at peak intensity through both Cannes Film Festival in May and Cannes Yachting Festival in September. The most heavily booked late venue of the show week; tables work through the hotel concierge or your charter team.
• Bâoli Beach & Bâoli Light. The daytime and early-evening sister venues to the Bâoli main club. The afternoon programme at Bâoli Beach is the natural Croisette lunch stop on heavier show days; Bâoli Light runs the pre-club programme.
• The Carlton Beach & Bagatelle Cannes. The Carlton Beach Club's daytime DJ programme typically runs through to the start of September and into festival week; Bagatelle's Cannes outpost (the Saint-Tropez group's Croisette branch) handles the long-lunch-into-evening transition on show days.
• Builder & broker industry parties. The defining nightlife of Cannes Yachting Festival is actually the closed-list industry events run by builders and the larger broker houses — Sunseeker's annual yacht-deck cocktails, Ferretti and Sanlorenzo's hosted dinners, Heesen and Wally's berthside programmes. These are invitation-only; Boatcrowd's clients are typically attached to multiple builder evenings across the week through our brokerage access.
• Late onwards — the Antibes and Juan-les-Pins circuit. When the Cannes venues close, the standard late move is east — Casino Terrazur in Antibes, the Pam Pam tiki bar in Juan-les-Pins, or the year-round Antibes piano-bar circuit. The tender from a Cannes-anchored yacht handles the return.

Cannes Yachting Festival is a working trade-and-public show, not a peak hospitality event in the Monaco GP or Cannes Film Festival sense — it doesn't generate a multiplier on charter rates the way those two events do. September Riviera charter rates are standard shoulder-season pricing, typically 30–50% below July and August peak. What the festival does drive is demand for inside-port berths (premium) and Cannes hotels (very premium); the yacht itself is the same price as any other September French Riviera charter.

Standard French Riviera charters include the yacht, full professional crew (captain, mate, chef, full stewardess and deck team), comprehensive insurance, and use of all on-board equipment and tenders. Most charters include the marina berth at the embarkation port; the festival-week show-port berth (Vieux Port or Port Canto), if available, is typically the responsibility of the client to secure and is charged separately on top of the standard charter rate.

Additional costs are APA (typically 30–35% of the charter rate, covering fuel, food, beverages, and dockage), French VAT (20% on French-flagged charters in French waters), and a recommended crew gratuity of 10–15% paid at the end of the charter. Cannes festival-week show-port berthing, when available, carries a premium of several thousand euros per night over standard French Riviera marina rates. Tender shuttle into the festival from anchored or Antibes-based yachts is included as standard.

The two September shows running two weeks apart create a natural fourteen-day yacht-industry programme. Booking a yacht for the full fortnight typically delivers a better effective rate than two separate one-week charters, with the additional flexibility of cruising between the events. Most builders, brokers, and charter houses run their internal teams across both shows on a single yacht for exactly this reason.