Pulling an about face, the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity announced Wednesday that its 2021 event will be completely virtual in nature.

The announcement comes after it was previously made known months ago that the five-day program of events and awards shows planned for June 21-25 on the French Riviera would take place in person. Now the five-day edition will be fully digital running as Cannes Lions Live. That’s after the event was cancelled in its entirety last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Over the last year, we’ve been consulting with customers and working on our plans, including the development of Cannes Lions Live as part of the new Lions Membership platform,” said Lions chairman Philip Thomas. “We are now able to move fully to this format for 2021 – which will have all the celebration, inspiration and participation of Cannes Lions – to unite the global community virtually during Cannes Lions Live this June.”

Added managing director Simon Cook, “Cannes Lions Live will also signal the return of the Lions awards,” noting that after the benchmark of the awards was paused last year, the festival wanted to give the community the chance to immerse themselves in the creative work once again. “We’ll be championing the work on a huge scale – tracking progress throughout the week, analyzing the winners, delivering insights, identifying new talent – it’s the return of the benchmark and a moment for the industry to reflect but also look forward.”

The change of heart by festival management comes amid some speculation that Cannes Lions was to move to a hybrid-type setting with gatherings set for London and New York. Until this latest change, the festival had departed from other major events like SXSW and Sundance, both of which are conducting a fully digital calendar through 2021 in light of Covid-19 restrictions.

All Lions members will receive complimentary access to this year’s live edition with their subscription fee, which includes live awards results, analysis, commentary, immersive experiences and access to a “creativity on demand” channel.

It’s each June that typically some 15,000 registered delegates from 90 countries visit Cannes to celebrate the best in commercial creativity. Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity is considered advertising’s biggest event of the year.

The talent line-up for this year’s virtual gathering will be unveiled over the coming weeks.