The so-called “wedding of the century” will be one to remember, but not for the reason Jeff Bezos hopes.
Locals in Venice have promised to swarm the streets and canals as the billionaire business tycoon ties the knot with former TV reporter Lauren Sanchez. Residents say the 61-year-old Amazon CEO will not receive a warm reception in the city.
Instead, Bezos, his super-rich friends, and his $500m superyacht reportedly set to sail into Venetian waters will be told to go away.
The wedding is set to be a lavish affair: high-profile guests will flock to the city, the scores of film, fashion and business stars who have been graced with an exclusive invite to witness the world’s third-richest man marry for the second time. Paparazzi will replace palazzi as Venice’s striking feature for three days, as the city hosts what could be its largest ever celebrity wedding – with Oprah Winfrey and Ivanka Trump among the rumoured invitees.
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This, however, is assuming the guests are able to surpass a blockade on the canals led by furious Venetians, who feel authorities are prioritising the needs of rich tourists over desperately needed funding for local services.
“No space for Bezos!” declare the banners emblazoned across the city by the protest group of the same name. It has invited people to attend the protest with musical instruments and inflatables as they look to disrupt the billionaire’s nuptials.
“We will not be begging for the crumbs that fall from the table of the richest people on Earth,” the group says on Facebook. “We will be in the calli and alleys, in the canals, on the bridges, we will become their nightmare.”
Environmental campaigners on Monday unveiled a huge banner in the famed St Mark’s Square. “If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax,” it reads.
The details of the wedding have remained under wraps, but its guests are set to descend on the famous city later this week, for a celebration reportedly set to take over the entire island of San Giorgio.
Six years has passed since Bezos’s divorce from wife of 25 years MacKenzie Scott. The split came after US magazine The National Enquirer published a report claiming Bezos had had an affair with Sanchez for months.
A global scandal erupted when Bezos accused National Enquirer owner David Pecker of attempting to blackmail him over photographs which he allegedly sent to Sanchez depicting Bezos’s “semi-erect manhood”. Bezos suggested the leak could have been the work of the Saudi Arabian government.
The past year has also seen Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, shift his political alliances. In February, he announced he was putting a stop to opinion writers voicing opposition to “personal liberties and free markets”, triggering fury among readers and journalists at the paper. Hours after the sweeping changes, he dined with President Donald Trump.
Although Trump repeatedly criticised the Post – and Bezos personally – during his first term, during his second run, the paper opted not to endorse a 2024 candidate in a move that was interpreted as a peace offering to the Republican president from the Amazon CEO.
Bezos and Sanchez, 55, got engaged in May 2023. In the years since, he stepped down as Amazon CEO in order to dedicate more time to Blue Origin, his space tourism company.
Sanchez, a licensed pilot, was part of the first all-female crew to fly into space on the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket. Celebrated by many, critics questioned the purpose of the trip, calling it a vanity project. The inclusion of celebrity passengers, such as Katy Perry, sparked anger.
Just under one year after their engagement – when Bezos left a ring under her pillow after a romantic dinner on his megayacht – Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro confirmed in March that his city would play host.
Protesters say that their opposition to the upcoming celebration – which has so far seen huge banners emblazoned with blue graffiti-style writing unfurled on spots such as the four-century-old Rialto Bridge – is not a protest against the marriage itself.
Instead, they claim their anger is driven by their opposition to overcrowding. Venice is one of the busiest tourist hotspots in the world, with an estimated 30 million tourists flocking to its waterways each year. Such a huge surge in people can easily overwhelm a city with just 51,000 residents.
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“Bezos believes he can take over the city and turn it into his own private party venue,” said Tommaso Cacciari, a leading figure in the No Space for Bezos campaign. As residents leave the city due to rising living costs and low wages, the local authority has turned a blind eye to the dire state of public housing and focused on maximising tourist income, the group says.
A piecemeal approach at curbing the overcrowding numbers has seen the city introduce entrance fees for tourists and limit permitted group sizes while outlawing the use of loudspeakers. Authorities say it has been a success, but locals and critics aren’t convinced.
Venice is divided. In a strong rebuke to the protesters, Brugnaro said he was “ashamed” of his citizens protesting against Bezos. “What other city would organise a committee against the wedding of such an important person?” he asked, according to the BBC.
Along with regional governor Luca Zaia, Brugnaro has argued that the wedding will bring economic windfall to local businesses, not least for the motorboats and gondolas in the canals.
But Greenpeace Italy campaigner Simona Abbate said Venice would this week become a “symbol of social inequality” adding: “Yachts and private jets are climate bombs for the few.”
The grievances of many locals go beyond simply protecting the floating city.
“Our city does not need yet another luxury event for a bunch of oligarchs,” it said in a callout for support on social media.
Protesters are invited to bring their swimwear, a snorkel, inflatables and musical instruments. If they succeed in disrupting the so-called “wedding of the century”, the nuptials could turn into an expensive calamity.
