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Jeff Bezos’s upcoming Venice wedding has become a lightning rod for protest, as locals disgruntled with overtourism join climate activists to rage against a spectacle that to them epitomises many global ills.
Many of the city’s most exclusive hotels and water taxis are rumoured to have been block booked for a three-day extravaganza this week, as Amazon founder Bezos, one of the world’s richest men, is due to marry TV anchor Lauren Sánchez.
The dates and details are a closely held secret but the carefully restored Scuola Grande della Misericordia is reportedly among the venues. The city has long been a byword for both unsustainable tourism and the risks of climate change, as rising sea levels threaten its Renaissance-era architectural gems.
Local activists have responded by plastering the city walls with “No Space for Bezos” posters — a reference to his space technology investments — and placed banners at sites including the Rialto Bridge and San Giorgio island.
“What is happening here is blatant arrogance,” said Marta Sottoriva, 34, a high school English teacher and activist. “He is exploiting the city in the same way that he has been exploiting workers worldwide to build his empire.”
On Monday, climate and anti-inequality activists unfurled a vast banner in St Mark’s Square that read, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax”. It was quickly removed by police.
“Bezos’ wedding is a symbol of extreme wealth, privilege and a lot of things that are going wrong currently in the world” and taking place in “one of the world’s most climate vulnerable cities”, said Clara Thompson, a Greenpeace campaigner.
Celebrities, cultural luminaries and wealthy patrons regularly descend on Venice’s art and architectural biennials and annual film festivals. In 2014, Hollywood star George Clooney got married to human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin there.
But Bezos’s nuptials have touched a nerve among many Venetians, who allege that conservative mayor Luigi Brugnaro cares more for boosting tourist numbers than improving local residents’ lives.
“Venetians feel betrayed, neglected and forgotten,” said Tommaso Bortoluzzi, a municipal councillor with the opposition Democrat Party. “Many citizens feel they have lost the ability to live in their own city in a calm, serene and traditional way, while Venice has become an open air museum.”
The number of residents living in Venice’s historic centre has dropped from 100,000 in the 1980s to less than 50,000 today, according to Venessia, a website tracking population trends — while hotel beds and tourism rental apartments have surged.
“Year after year, tourism increases, but the city cannot absorb an infinite number of visitors,” Bortoluzzi added. “Venetians feel they are not even receiving the minimum services, even if a lot of resources are coming from tourism.”
Lanza & Baucina, the London-based event planner organising the wedding, insists the event has been arranged carefully in view of the city’s fragility.
“Instructions from our client and our own guiding principles were abundantly clear: the minimising of any disruption to the city, the respect to its residents and institutions, and the overwhelming employment of locals,” the company said last week.
“Rumours of ‘taking over’ the city are entirely false and diametrically opposed to our goals,” the planners said, noting that Bezos had made charitable donations — of an unspecified size — to organisations working to preserve the lagoon.
Brugnaro, a conservative who has run the city for a decade, has lashed out at the protesters and said “whoever loves Venice will always be welcome”.
But that has not placated the “No Space for Bezos” campaign, which has brought together students, unions and activists campaigning for affordable housing and against cruise ships.
Many say their protests are against tech-driven capitalism and the alleged exploitation of vulnerable gig economy workers. Last year, Italian police seized €121mn from a Milan-based Amazon unit for alleged tax fraud and labour malpractices — charges Bezos’s company denied.
On Saturday, protesters plan to jump into the canals and use their own boats to block water taxis ferrying guests to the wedding.
“The political agenda here continuously blurs the lines between the public good and private interests,” said Sottoriva, who cut her teeth in the successful campaign against cruise ships. “Local residents are seen as obstacles to tourism — obstacles to Venice as a Disneyland theme park.”
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