In Venice, Jeff Bezos, the boss of Amazon, is getting hitched to Lauren Sanchez. Locals threatened to encircle the city’s canals with inflatable crocodiles, so he had to move.
Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos has been forced to relocate his lavish Venice wedding celebrations after furious residents threatened to blockade the city’s historic canals with inflatable crocodiles. The 61-year-old had planned to host a star-studded party at the 16th-century Scuola Grande della Misericordia as part of a multi-day wedding celebration with fiancée Lauren Sánchez.
However, Bezos has reportedly moved the event to a more secure location in response to the growing criticism from locals who claimed he had “shuffled down Venice.” Some protesters vowed to toss inflatables into the canals, preventing gondola or water taxi arrivals for famous people. No Space for Bezos protester Tommaso Cacciari proclaimed, “This is a big victory for us.” Who would have imagined that one of the world’s richest men’s plans could be altered?
READ MORE: Jeff Bezos’ Venice nuptials to be met with activist wedding crashers
The Arsenale, a massive, fortress-like complex of shipyards and warehouses that were once used to build Venetian warships, will now host the wedding.
The site is regarded as much more secure than the original intended location because of its fortified walls and stone lions guarding its gates.
Escalating tensions in the Middle East and the potential attendance of politically sensitive guests, including Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, have also heightened concerns over security.
Venice’s police chief, Darco Pellos, stated that “private events with a high international profile will be closely watched.”
Different private jets are currently arriving at Venice’s Marco Polo airport as part of the couple’s three-day wedding celebrations, which is expected to wrap up on Friday.
Flights carrying Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Salma Hayek Pinault, Sir Elton John, and Lady Gaga are expected, among others. They include Kim Kardashian, Jared Kushner, Karlie Kloss, and Sánchez’s Blue Origin spaceflight crewmates Katy Perry and Gayle King.
Sánchez has claimed to be planning the wedding like “every other bride” and even made a joke on the Today Show last year, “I do have a Pinterest.”
Questions remain over whether the event will be ruined by protests as Venice prepares for the arrival of over 90 private jets and a glittering constellation of celeb guests.
Bezos and Sánchez’s £371 million three-masted superyacht Koru, hosted a foam party before the formal gatherings.
The Abeona, a support vessel with a helicopter pad, joined the yacht as it was anchored off the Croatian coast.
Bezos and Sánchez were filmed laughing as foam poured down from a gigantic cannon, which he famously founded in 1994 from a garage in Seattle and later expanded into a global retail empire.
The former TV journalist has gained acclaim in her soon-to-be husband’s professional life.
She later founded Black Ops Aviation, one of the first female-owned aerial film and production companies, after becoming a regular on US television programs like “Extra” and “The View.”
After their relationship was revealed in the American newspaper National Enquirer, Bezos announced his split from his first wife, MacKenzie Scott, in 2019.
That divorce, finalised later the same year, resulted in Scott receiving a £28 billion settlement, which she has since used to fund charitable efforts around the world.
However, the spectacle continues to elicit fury among Venetians who are becoming more and more constrained by inequality and overtourism.
More than 20 million people visit Venice’s main island each year, making up just 50, 000 inhabitants. The city recently imposed a five euro daily fee for daytrippers as a response.
In St Mark’s Square, Greenpeace and the advocacy group Everyone Hates Elon unfurled a banner that read, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax.”
According to Clara Thompson, a campaigner for Greenpeace, “Billionaires are partying like there is no tomorrow on their megayachts while Venice is sinking under the weight of the climate crisis.”
“It’s about changing the rules so no billionaire can dodge responsibility, anywhere,” says the statement.
Bezos’s fortune and previous expenditures on an 11-minute space trip werecited as evidence of an economic imbalance, according to the group, which called for billionaire income taxes.
This is the spokesman’s statement, “If there was ever a sign that billionaires like Bezos should pay wealth taxes, it was this.”
However, a rival campaign, titled “Yes Venice Can,” has emerged in favor of the Bezos wedding, claiming it will contribute millions to the local economy.
The group argued that “we cannot allow a noisy minority to discredit the image of this city in the eyes of the world” and was supported by hoteliers, restaurateurs, and local business leaders.
READ MORE: Top Tech: 5 fans to beat the heatwave from Amazon, Shark, and Dyson
