What to find out about Jeff Bezos’ upcoming Venice wedding ceremony — and the protests in opposition to it

Activists in Venice, Italy, are protesting the upcoming vacation spot wedding ceremony of tech billionaire Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sánchez, as experiences of the occasion’s excessive extravagance divide the town.

Bezos — the Amazon founder and Washington Submit proprietor — is among the world’s richest males, with an estimated internet price of $231 billion in response to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. He and Sánchez — a former information anchor and licensed pilot — obtained engaged in 2023, 4 years after going public with their relationship.

Their nuptials have been the topic of hypothesis and intense secrecy ever since.

After coming back from the temporary — and broadly panned — all-female spaceflight she organized on one in all Bezos’ Blue Origin rockets in April, Sánchez quipped that she needed to make it again safely for her wedding ceremony, in any other case “that would be a bummer for me.”

Sánchez’s brother Paul has in contrast it to the 1981 royal wedding ceremony of Prince Charles and Woman Diana Spencer, telling TMZ in March, “I think it’s gonna be like a Princess Di thing.”

Whereas exact particulars in regards to the wedding ceremony stay underneath wraps, Italian media and world newswires report it is going to be held in Venice in late June. Reviews of a multiday, multimillion-dollar affair — is anticipated to attract a whole bunch of celebrants to a fragile lagoon metropolis already grappling with overtourism — sparked issues in Italy.

In March, the metropolis of Venice denied media experiences that wedding ceremony organizers had reserved massive numbers of gondolas and water taxis for the occasion, which had fueled fears of disruptions for the vacationers and locals who use them for day by day transport.

Venetian officers stated there can be solely 200 visitors, an simply accommodated quantity for a metropolis used to internet hosting all types of political summits, cultural occasions and VIP weddings (together with George and Amal Clooney’s in 2014).

“We are mutually working and supporting the organizers, to ensure that the event will be absolutely respectful of the fragility and uniqueness of the city,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro stated, in response to the Related Press.

However that hasn’t stopped protesters from making their disapproval identified. Activists uniting underneath the “No Space for Bezos” motion — nodding to the {couples}’ spacefaring pursuits — have taken difficulty with what they name the privatization of their metropolis and the native authorities’s perceived prioritization of tourism over the wants of its residents.

All through the month, protesters have hung anti-Bezos posters and banners on varied areas throughout the town, together with the bell tower of the San Giorgio Maggiore basilica and the well-known Rialto Bridge. On Monday, activists from Greenpeace Italy and the U.Okay. group “Everyone Hates Elon [Musk]” joined the motion, Reuters experiences.

They hung a banner in St. Mark’s Sq., with an image of Bezos laughing and the phrases: “If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax.”

Lanza & Baucina Restricted, the organizers of the Bezos-Sánchez wedding ceremony, have launched a uncommon assertion in search of to set the file straight about “rumours of ‘taking over’ the city,” calling them “entirely false and diametrically opposed to our goals and to reality.”

It stated “no exaggerated quantity” of water taxis or gondolas had been booked, and the variety of taxis reserved is “proportionate for the number of guests.”

“From the outset, instructions from our client and our own guiding principles were abundantly clear: the minimising of any disruption to the city, the respect for its residents and institutions and the overwhelming employment of locals in the crafting of the events,” the agency informed NPR in a press release on Monday.

When requested for remark, an Amazon spokesperson referred NPR to the organizers’ assertion.

Here is what else we all know — and nonetheless do not — in regards to the wedding ceremony and the protests in opposition to it.

The place and when is the marriage? 

Most experiences say the marriage celebrations will span three days, however the actual dates range.

Reuters and others say the window is probably going June 26-28, whereas the AP — citing Italian media — beforehand reported it might be June 24-26.

There have been equally conflicting experiences in regards to the ceremony’s whereabouts.

A spokesperson for Brugnaro, Venice’s mayor, informed CNN in March that it will happen on Bezos’ 417-foot superyacht, the Koru. The ship has made headlines earlier than: In 2022, the Dutch metropolis of Rotterdam thought of briefly dismantling a historic bridge to permit the Koru to depart the shipyard the place it was constructed — however reversed course after residents protested, together with threatening to egg it.

However different retailers, together with CNN and The Hollywood Reporter, report that the couple might get married on the non-public island of San Giorgio Maggiore, particularly in a monastery there.

The “No Space for Bezos” activists, in the meantime, say the marriage is meant to happen within the 14th-century Scuola Grande della Misericordia, a faculty armory-turned-event venue, in response to EuroNews and CNN. The protesters are hoping that will not occur.

“Bezos will never get to the Misericordia,” organizer Federica Toninello informed supporters at a protest earlier this month, per CNN. “We will block the canals, line the streets with our bodies, block the canals with inflatables, dinghies, boats.”

Why are folks protesting? 

Locals against the marriage festivities have a number of issues, starting from logistical disruptions to environmental impacts of a sudden inflow of yachts and personal jets.

“Bezos is basically going to treat the whole city as a private ballroom, as a private event area, as if the citizens are not there,” protester Alice Bazzoli informed Sky Information.

The island metropolis is actively sinking resulting from rising sea ranges and mass tourism. In an effort to curb the latter, it now requires day-trippers over the age of 14 to pay a day by day tax on sure days (both 5 or 10 euros relying on timing) to go to its 2.5 square-mile historic metropolis heart.

The huge inflow of vacationers has worsened the housing disaster, as many residential buildings have been transformed into short-term leases, and led to a drop within the inhabitants as many residents attempt their luck elsewhere.

It is in opposition to this backdrop that Bezos and Sánchez are arriving for his or her wedding ceremony, which regional governor Luca Zaia has stated is anticipated to price the equal of $23-$34 million. Whereas Zaia says that can give a much-needed enhance to the native financial system, folks protesting the occasion fear they will not personally expertise the advantages of that cash.

“Venice (like everywhere) needs public services and housing, not VIPs and over-tourism,” Greenpeace UK stated on Bluesky. ” It’s time to #TaxTheSuperRich and make them pay for the destruction they cause – the world is not their playground.”

What has the response been to protests? 

Venice’s mayor, Brugnaro, informed reporters Friday that he was ashamed of the protesters, saying “we will have to apologize to Bezos.”

“I hope that Bezos comes anyway,” he stated. “Not all Venetians think like these protesters.”

The marriage organizers, Lanza & Baucina Restricted, stated of their assertion that since earlier than the protests broke out, it had “worked for there to be minimal negative impact or disruption to the lives of Venetians and the city’s visitors.”

“We have always acknowledged the wider debate and critical issues surrounding the city’s future, and from the outset our client has been honoured to support the city and its all-important lagoon through non-profit organisations and associated projects,” the corporate added.

Bezos has made sizable contributions to Venetian charities within the lead-up to the marriage, together with a million-euro donation to Corila, a tutorial consortium that research Venice’s lagoon ecosystem, Reuters experiences. In response to the AP, Corila confirmed over the weekend that Bezos’ Earth Fund had made an “important donation” again in April, effectively earlier than protests began.

The AP experiences that no less than two historic Venetian firms will contribute to the festivities: Rosa Salva, the town’s oldest pastry maker, and Laguna B, a design studio well-known for its distinctive, handmade Murano glassware.

Antonio Rosa Salva, the sixth technology in his household to run the bakery, stated he can be supplying a number of treats for visitors’ goody baggage — and welcomes the consideration.

“I don’t see how an event with 200 people can create disruptions,” he informed the AP. “It’s prestigious that a couple like this, who can go anywhere in the world, are getting married in the city.”