‘No Space for Bezos:’ Venetian Protesters Hound Amazon Founder’s Nuptials 

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez arrived in Venice on Wednesday ahead of their four-day wedding extravaganza, an event that has set off protests that have already forced the billionaire to move the nuptials to a new location, the BBC reported. 

The lavish wedding celebrations, scheduled to start on Thursday and last until Saturday, are expected to jam Venice’s airport and canals with private jets and yachts, respectively. Five hotels in the city have been completely booked to accommodate a guest list that is reported to include Kim Kardashian, Mick Jagger, and Ivanka Trump. 

While the venues for the three-day gala were never officially reported, the celebration that was set to take place on Saturday at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, a cavernous venue in northern Venice that dates to 1583, was changed to the Arsenale – a more secure location further away from the city center – after protesters threatened to block the canal with inflatable crocodiles, France 24 reported. 

Protesters called the change an “enormous victory.”  

The protesters belong to various groups, including locals fighting against overtourism and the housing crisis, climate change activists, and those who dislike Bezos’ support for US President Donald Trump.  

“Bezos comes to Venice only for the party, that’s the problem: This vision of Venice not as a city anymore but like a big theme park where you can hire pieces or all of it and just do your private thing,” Tommaso Cacciari, from No Space for Bezos group, told the BBC. 

While the crocodile protest has been called off, protesters say they will continue their demonstrations through Saturday. “No Space for Bezos” posters have been plastered across the city while another group called Everyone Hates Elon unfurled a giant poster of Bezos in Piazza San Marco, reading, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, then you can pay more tax.” 

City officials, meanwhile, have denounced the demonstrations as “ridiculous” and say the event is an important source of income for Venice. 

“These protesters behave as if they own Venice but they don’t,” Simone Venturini, a local politician, told the BBC.