I attended the Cannes International Festival of Creativity for the very first time this year.  Nearly 15 years after leaving the advertising industry, I never thought I would attend and I wasn't one of the privileged few who got to go in the past. Moving to the charity sector (where one of my Barnardo’s campaigns won a Gold Lion for BBH), the festival always seemed reminiscent of the career I'd left behind; irrelevant for me as a brand marketer and not a safe place for me to be as a Black woman (especially one who prides myself on showing up authentically and unapologetically).

So why did I decide to go this year?

Through the grapevine, I'd heard about a mission to connect all the Black people attending Cannes this year - and to create spaces "for us and by us".

This wasn’t about a handful of people on the ubiquitous and numerous diversity panels at the main festival (of which I have heard there were many). This was an effort to truly connect people, to create opportunities for collaboration at a global industry event. It's really rare that I get to network with industry professionals that look like me outside London, so I decided to sign up - not to the main festival, as I still didn't see the value or appeal, but to attend a few of the fringe events, specifically those focussed on connecting Black creatives and industry folks.

And my experience was joyful. Joy is an underused word in the context of the Black experience, and specifically in our industry. We demonstrate excellence, we face adversity but do we see Black joy in industry spaces? Rarely.

What made the experience joyful?

Firstly it was the sense of community. For example, there was a WhatsApp group set up in advance to get people talking which was buzzing with news of events throughout the festival.

Secondly, it was the opportunity to truly connect. There was even a dedicated beach, Inkwell Beach, powered by Group Black, which hosted several of the events I attended. I met colleagues from US, Canada, South Africa and all over the world; new amazing connections that I would never have made anywhere else.

Thirdly, we were there at scale. Not a handful of people, easy to spot in a crowd but large groups of Black people coming together to share our Cannes experience. 

But before the industry gets all self-congratulatory, this wasn’t the result of its diversity efforts. Or the Cannes Festival D&I strategy (although I am sure they have one).

Many of the events I attended were organised by one brilliant individual, Peter Ukhurebor, Director at One Block Village (a creative community dedicated to changing the narrative and lack of representation within brands and companies), and supported by Group Black (a collective of Black owned media brands).  They created the spaces. They connected the community. And the change was visible and palpable.

However, my experience also showed me how far there is to go - and how difficult it will be for an industry that only wants to talk about ‘diversity’ to get there.

Diversity is a fact. Not the goal. We should be prioritising equity and inclusion - addressing the fact that Black people are deliberately and woefully underrepresented in this industry, in a world where people of colour are collectively the Global Majority. We should be focused on embedding anti-racism into industry spaces so that it is safe for people from racialised backgrounds to show up at scale.

Every single Black person I spoke to had experienced racism during the festival.

I heard from Black peers and colleagues who were denied entry to events they were speaking at, subjected to repeated and numerous bag searches and badge checks whilst white colleagues were waved through, and consistently questioned about why they were at the festival at all. I heard from senior Black women, veterans in the industry who were told they should be 'grateful' to be there at all. And it is telling that most of the Black people I spoke to were attending Cannes for the first time.

At spaces that were open to 'allies', I found that white people were consistently served before Black people at the bars, and 'VIP' areas would suddenly be overrun by white people - to the exclusion of Black people.

Such racism is nothing new. And whilst the advertising industry is focused on "diversity", it will remain an issue unless we act collectively. 

Is the Cannes International Festival of Creativity ready to change? I'm not sure. But I think it is possible to use these existing industry spaces to create the change needed and that is exciting. My 2022 Cannes experience showed me that we don't need a seat at that specific table to create global community and connection and I can't wait to see what 2023 brings.