By Jace Banite
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former journalist Lauren Sánchez have tied the knot in a star-studded three-day wedding ceremony in Venice, Italy.
The couple reportedly arrived in the Italian city on June 25 to kickstart their long-awaited but highly-controversial nuptials with a casual welcome night at the Madonna dell’Orto church on June 26.
Bezos, 61, and Sánchez, 55, then took their vows in a private ceremony on the secluded San Giorgio Maggiore island of San Marco sestiere on June 27, before wrapping up the extravaganza with a final party on June 28.
While the wedding stirred excitement among the rich and famous, anger from anti-capitalist Venetians surrounded the matrimony.
Hundreds protest wedding
On Saturday, as the newlyweds were preparing for the final stretch of their wedding, hundreds of people from Venice and across Italy gathered in the tiny streets of the sinking city carrying colourful banners that read “Kisses Yes, Bezos No” and “No Bezos, No War,” reported American media outlet National Public Radio (NPR).
Demonstrators denounced the Bezos-Sánchez wedding bonanza “as an exploitation of the city… while ordinary residents suffer from overtourism, high housing costs, and the constant threat of climate-induced flooding,” according to NPR.
“We are here to continue ruining the plans of these rich people, who accumulate money by exploiting many other people… while the conditions of this city remain precarious,” activist Martina Vergnano was quoted as saying at the protest.
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Wedding venue moved
Organisers said the strike prompted the couple to move the venue of Saturday’s party from “a supposed initial location to a former medieval shipyard, the Arsenale”.
Saturday’s demonstration was built on an earlier movement against the Bezos-Sánchez wedding, held under the slogan “No Space For Bezos”, which is “a play on words also referring to the bride’s recent and much-mocked space flight,” says Euronews.
Ahead of the planned wedding, various Venetian organisations, including housing advocates, anti-cruise ship campaigners, and university groups, had staged small-scale protests at iconic sites in Venice.
The display of a giant banner that read “IF YOU CAN RENT VENICE FOR YOUR WEDDING YOU CAN PAY MORE TAX” was among the key moments of the demonstrations.
It is reported that the Bezos-Sánchez wedding accommodated around 200 high-value guests, including A-list stars Oprah Winfrey, the Kardashian and Jenner sisters, Orlando Bloom, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
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