The highly anticipated wedding celebrations for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez officially began today in Venice, marked by tight security, a galaxy of VIP guests, and a backdrop of both local excitement and protest.
The opulent festivities, set to span three days, saw a steady stream of A-list arrivals today, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, actor Orlando Bloom, and Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan.
They join an already star-studded list of early attendees that includes media mogul Oprah Winfrey, and reality television personalities Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, and Khloe Kardashian.
Adding a political dimension to the guest list, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, daughter and son-in-law of United States President Donald Trump, were also present, having arrived earlier in the week and reportedly enjoyed some pre-wedding sightseeing and shopping.
With an estimated 200 to 250 luminaries from the worlds of entertainment, politics, and finance expected, the event has been widely dubbed the “wedding of the century,” with projected costs soaring to around $50 million.
However, the lavish affair has not been without controversy. It has ignited a passionate debate about its impact on Venice, one of the world’s most iconic and fragile cities.
For some, the spectacle highlights the concern that Venice is increasingly being transformed into an exclusive playground for the ultra-wealthy, at the expense of its local character. Conversely, many Venetians and visitors are embracing the grandeur of the event, appreciating both the entertainment value and the significant economic injection it brings to the city.
An activist climbed one of the poles in the main St Mark’s Square on Thursday, unfurling a banner with the words “The 1% ruins the world” to protest against the presence of the billionaire Bezos in Venice.
Guests were gathering on Thursday evening in the cloisters of Madonna dell’Orto, a medieval church in the central district of Cannaregio that hosts masterpieces by 16th century painter Tintoretto.
The city council banned pedestrians and water traffic from the area from 4:30pm (1430 GMT) until midnight, to provide security and seclusion for the partygoers.
Over $4,000 per night
Bezos, 61, and Sanchez, 55, landed in Venice via helicopter on Wednesday and took up residence in the luxury Aman hotel, where rooms with a view of the Grand Canal go for at least 4,000 euros ($4,686) per night.
They are set to exchange vows on Friday on the small island of San Giorgio, opposite St Mark’s Square, in a ceremony which, according to a senior City Hall official, will have no legal status under Italian law.
Some have speculated that the couple have already legally wed in the United States, sparing them from the bureaucracy associated with an Italian marriage.
Celebrations will conclude on Saturday with the main wedding bash to be held at one of the halls of the Arsenale, a vast former medieval shipyard turned into an art space in the eastern Castello district.
The “No Space for Bezos” movement is planning further demonstrations against an event they see as a sell-off of Venice, but by no means are all the locals hostile.
Money-spinner
Politicians, hoteliers and other residents say high-end events, rather than multitudes of low-spending daytrippers, are a better way to support the local economy, and dismiss the protesters as a fringe minority.
“If you look at what concretely the Bezos wedding brings for the good of Venice, there are only advantages and no disadvantages,” Mattia Brandi, a local tour leader, told Reuters.
“If anything is different, it is because of the protesters … They don’t realise that it is them who are disrupting the quiet life of the city,” he added.
Venice has hosted scores of VIP weddings. US actor George Clooney and human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin tied the knot there in 2014, and Indian billionaires Vinita Agarwal and Muqit Teja did so in 2011, without significant disruptions.
Bezos, executive chair of e-commerce giant Amazon and No. 4 on Forbes’ billionaires list, got engaged to Sanchez in 2023, four years after the collapse of his 25-year marriage to MacKenzie Scott.
