VENICE — What began as a billionaire’s fairy-tale weekend crescendoed into a roar of local resistance on Saturday, when hundreds of Venetians marched from Santa Lucia station to the Rialto Bridge to denounce Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s star-studded nuptials. Organizers from the “No Space for Bezos” collective estimated the turnout at roughly 700, many waving flare-lit banners that read “Kisses Yes, Bezos No” and “Pay Your Taxes.”reuters.com
Protesters framed the three-day wedding bash—complete with mega-yachts, private jets and a who’s-who guest list—as the latest symptom of Venice’s deeper malaise: soaring rents, unchecked mass tourism and a population that has slipped below 50,000 residents for the first time in centuries. “We refuse to let the lagoon become a billionaire’s backdrop,” shouted activist Alice Bazzoli over a portable loudspeaker, accusing Amazon’s founder of “buying publicity while Venetians are priced out of their own city.”reuters.com
The demonstration’s timing was strategic. On Friday evening, the couple exchanged vows on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore with an invite-only crowd reportedly including Leonardo DiCaprio, Oprah Winfrey, Ivanka Trump, Kim Kardashian, Tom Brady and Bill Gates. A lavish masked ball scheduled for Saturday night was quietly relocated to a secure shipyard after activists unfurled eighty-foot banners over St Mark’s Square and the Rialto overnight.reuters.com
City hall struck a different note. Mayor Luigi Brugnaro called the wedding “free advertising” for Venice and praised Bezos’s €3 million donation to local cultural and environmental projects—a gesture protesters dismissed as a “drop in the lagoon” given Amazon’s labour controversies and carbon footprint.reuters.com
Beyond the slogans, marchers highlighted concrete grievances: Airbnb-driven rent inflation, a daily tourist influx that dwarfs the resident population, and cruise-ship scale pollution now mirrored by super-yachts anchored for the festivities. “Housing has become so scarce our young people commute from the mainland,” said film-maker Andrea Segre, holding a placard of sinking row-houses.reuters.com
While local hoteliers welcomed the A-list exposure, Saturday’s protest underscored a growing belief that Venice’s survival depends on residents, not red-carpet spectacles. As dusk settled and the last flare fizzed out over the Grand Canal, activist Tommaso Cacciari offered a parting quip: “This city isn’t a stage set—it’s our living room. Bezos just found out we still keep the keys.”reuters.com
