Each September the Cannes Yachting Festival opens the closing stretch of the Mediterranean season. For six days the town's two harbours fill with several hundred new motor and sailing yachts, most of them afloat and many making their world debut. For anyone weighing a charter or a purchase, it is the most efficient week of the year to see the market in one place. The 2026 edition runs from 8 to 13 September across the Vieux Port and Port Canto.
What the Cannes Yachting Festival is
The festival, still widely called the Cannes boat show, is Europe's largest in-water boat show and the traditional opening of the autumn yachting calendar. Builders time their launches around it, which is why so many hulls shown here are seen afloat for the first time. The show runs across the town's two ports. The Vieux Port, below the old town at the western end of the Croisette, carries the main new-build displays. Port Canto, at the eastern end of the bay, holds the sailing area and the brokerage and charter section, where larger pre-owned yachts lie afloat and open to view.
The two ports are linked through the week by a shuttle across the bay, and the walk between them along the Croisette takes around half an hour. Most visitors give a full day to each.
Dates and venues for 2026
The 2026 festival runs from Tuesday 8 to Sunday 13 September, with the new-build displays concentrated in the Vieux Port and the sailing and pre-owned sections at Port Canto. September in Cannes is reliably warm, the sea still holds its summer temperature, and the town is busy without the density of August.
Attending the festival by yacht
Arriving by chartered yacht changes the week. Hotels in Cannes are heavily reserved around the festival and the restaurants run at capacity, so a yacht gives you your accommodation, a base for meetings, and a way to move along the coast on your own schedule. Guests typically anchor off the Croisette or take a berth in a nearby harbour, tender in for the day's viewings, and return aboard for the evening.
It also solves the geography of the show. With a tender to hand, the crossing between the Vieux Port and Port Canto takes minutes rather than a slow walk through the crowds, and you can leave mid-afternoon for a swim off the Îles de Lérins and be back for an evening event.
What berthing that week realistically involves
It is worth being clear-eyed about berthing. Festival week is the most contested week of the year in Cannes itself. Berths in the Vieux Port and Port Canto are given over almost entirely to the exhibition, and visitor space in the town is scarce and released late. In practice, most charter yachts attending the show do one of three things: anchor in the bay off the Croisette in settled weather; take a berth in a neighbouring harbour such as Golfe-Juan, Antibes or Mandelieu and tender across; or base further along the coast at Monaco or Cap Ferrat and treat Cannes as a day call.
None of that is a drawback, but it needs arranging well ahead. Requests for the festival period are best placed months out, and your advisor will confirm what is realistically available for the yacht's size before the itinerary is set.
Viewing and shortlisting yachts at the show
For charter clients, the festival is a rare chance to walk through a large number of yachts in one week, including many that are otherwise spread across the Mediterranean. Ten minutes standing in a saloon tells you more than any brochure about volume, light, layout and condition.
The show rewards preparation. Access to the yachts on display is generally by appointment, arranged through the broker or the builder's representative, and the diary fills quickly once the doors open. The productive approach is to arrive with a shortlist: agree the brief with your advisor first, the size range, the guest configuration, the cruising plans and the budget, and have the appointments confirmed before the first morning. Two or three considered viewings a day, with time to compare between them, beats trying to see everything.
An advisor alongside you also changes what you learn. Any crew will show a visitor the owner's suite; an advisor asks about the yacht's charter history, its crew retention and its maintenance record, which is what actually decides the quality of a week aboard.
Combining the show with a September Riviera cruise
September is arguably the finest month on the French Riviera. The water is at its warmest, the light softens, and the summer crowds thin from the second week. A natural pattern is to fold the festival into a longer cruise: embark at Monaco or Nice, spend two or three days at the show, then continue as the week suggests.
From Cannes, the Îles de Lérins are twenty minutes off, Saint-Tropez is a comfortable morning's cruise west, and the Estérel coast offers quiet anchorages within the hour. Eastwards lie Antibes, Villefranche and Monaco. A week built around the show takes in the essential Riviera without a single long passage. For routes, see our guide to a week on the French Riviera.
For anyone following the season, the festival also pairs naturally with the Monaco Yacht Show, which follows later the same month a short cruise along the coast. Taking in both on one itinerary is entirely practical and gives a complete read of the market, from the production yachts at Cannes to the large superyacht fleet at Monaco.
How the house assists
Balthazar Yachting arranges festival charters end to end: the yacht, the berthing or anchorage plan for the week, the tender logistics between the two ports, the show appointments aligned to your shortlist, and the cruising either side of the show. For clients weighing yachts for future charters or for purchase, your advisor attends the viewings with you and gives a straight read on each afterwards.
Festival-week charters are best planned early, as the yachts suited to a Cannes base are wanted for the same days and the berthing options narrow as September approaches. Tell us what you want from the week and we will come back with a concrete plan. You can start the conversation here.
