Sofia Stidham
Venetians call their protests a success as the Bezos-Sanchez wedding relocates to the outskirts of the city following the inflatable crocodile threat.
The groom, Jeff Bezos. Seattle City Council. CC BY 2.0.
On Monday, June 23, 2025, environmental campaigners from Greenpeace and the British group “Everyone Hates Elon” unfurled a 400-square-meter banner across a Venetian tourist hotspot that read, “IF YOU CAN RENT VENICE FOR YOUR WEDDING YOU CAN PAY MORE TAX.” Underneath, they superimposed the disembodied, cackling head of their subject: centibillionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Controversy shrouded Bezos when he planned to hold his large-scale wedding to journalist Lauren Sanchez in Venice’s compact canals on the weekend of June 28. “Bezos embodies an economic and social model that is leading us towards collapse,” Greenpeace cited as one of the reasons for their demonstration. Thus, the environmental advocates highlighted the stark contrast between the ordinary civilian and the billionaire, with Bezos symbolizing this inequality.
The group No Space for Bezos, formed from some of Venice’s 50,000 residents, also raised their concerns about allowing someone like Bezos to celebrate in their city. On Instagram, they questioned Amazon’s labor practices, trafficking, environmental impact and effects on small businesses worldwide. No Space for Bezos, with its name and rocket logo nodding to Sanchez’s recent vacation with Katy Perry that was truly out of this world, set the stage for Greenpeace through previous protests. They veiled the world-famous Rialto Bridge in Bezos banners and also hung his name from the steeple of the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, crossed out with a large red “X.”
Climate Strike in Washington, DC, 2019. Ted Eytan. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Frederica Toninelli and Alice Bazzoli, activists with No Space for Bezos, explained the necessity of their action in an interview with Sky News. Bezos “represents the type of society we don’t want,” Toninelli said. “This is not what Venice needs.”
The wedding will make it “impossible to move in the water, the canals are just like streets in Venice,” Bazzoli added. “The level of pollution that the yachts are going to bring is incredible.”
“It’s this conception of Venice that pushed all of its residents out,” said Tommaso Cacciari, another leader of the anti-Bezos protest. “To consider it not as a city but as a theme park.” As a result, No Space for Bezos aims to reclaim space for Venetian citizens, amplifying their cumulative voices in decisions that render the city a fantasy rather than one that is livable.
No Space for Bezos initially planned on blockading the canals surrounding the central Cannaregio's Scuola Grande della Misericordia, the original wedding venue, with a flotilla of inflatable flamingos, ducks, unicorns and crocodiles. However, rather than facing Venice’s new pop-up zoo, organizers decided to move the Bezos-Sanchez event from central Venice to the shipyard Arsenale on the outer edges of the city. Arsenale is unreachable by protestors when its bridges are raised.
Canal and Sacca della Misericordia. Didier Descouens. CC BY 4.0.
No Space for Bezos called the relocation a victory for the Venetian people, a display of what citizen pressure can achieve. “We have shown once again that Venice is not a servant of the powerful but continues to be rebellious and resistant,” they posted on social media. Instead of harnessing the power of the creatures of Venice, the group will hold their No Bezos, No War protest on June 28, 2025, at Santa Lucia Train Station.
Italian and Venetian spokespeople, on the other hand, have expressed their disapproval of the protestors. “If I had a restaurant, I should be happy to have Bezos at a table,” said Simone Venturini, a city official. “Not have waiters standing in front of the door to stop him from entering.” Lucia Zaia, president of the Veneto region, echoed this sentiment, stating, “Venice is everyone’s, even Jeff Bezos’s.”
Yet, the outcry of No Space for Bezos and Greenpeace occurred amid a backdrop of rising protests in Southern Europe against overtourism. In Barcelona, demonstrators conveyed how their city’s decisions have left them in a housing crisis. “Your Airbnb was my home,” read one sign.
Furthermore, it is not the first time that the public has spoken out about visitors in Venice. In June 2021, an anti-cruise ship protest in the Giudecca Canal brought out thousands of people, emphasizing the devastation that the watercraft brings to the city’s marine life. The city already has a fragile disposition due to rising sea levels. After all this discontent and reorganization, the Reverend Stefano Visintin of Venice’s Abbey of San Giorgio proposed the simple solution that “he could have just got married in Beverly Hills.” Therefore, the Bezos wedding protestors have reiterated that the city of Venice is not simply someone else’s fairytale but their day-to-day reality.
Sofia Stidham
Sofia is a rising fourth-year English Literature student at the University of Edinburgh, having recently completed a year-long exchange at the University of Virginia. Outside of writing, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, going to concerts, curating her wardrobe, and zoning out on long walks. She hopes to pursue a career that allows her to channel her passion for writing into intersectional feminist advocacy.