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Anti-Jeff Bezos protesters in Venice vow drastic action to disrupt $7m wedding, make guests ‘choke on their wedding cake'
Anti-Jeff Bezos protesters out to disrupt his Venice wedding to Lauren Sanchez have threatened to make them 'choke on their wedding cake'.
Local protesters have branded the Amazon founder and his helicopter pilot fiancée as 'oligarchs' and said they will take whatever action necessary to spoil the fairytale $7m wedding, which the locals mayor's office said will be held on Bezos' $500 million superyacht Koru, set to be anchored just outside the floating city.
'We'll throw ourselves into the canal if we have to, we'll make sure they choke on their wedding cake,' activists leading the protests said, according to the Italian edition of Vanity Fair magazine.
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8 A poster showing Jeff Bezos with a red clown nose and tape over his eyes. The text reads 'Veniceland: A playground for the olicharchy'
No space for Bezos!/ Instagram
8 Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez at the Monaco Grand Prix 2025 Formula One race on May 25.
IPA /
'We don't object to the marriage, but to the hubris of this technocrat feudal overlord who acts with such entitlement,' the local No Space for Bezos movement said.
Groups protesting against Bezos — the third richest man in the world with a net worth of $226 billion — have also threatened to blockade the major waterways into the city, effectively cutting off supplies.
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If that happens, as well as causing problems for the wedding organization, it would immediately cause prices to spike for anyone within Venice city limits, one of Europe's top tourist destinations, during high season.
'If they block the canal we wouldn't receive our goods. They would definitely block the Grand Canal, which is what transporters use to deliver goods in the morning.
'They start from Tronchetto and then arrive at Rialto [bridge in the center of the city], so it would create quite a lot of issues. The goods wouldn't arrive,' a representative for the Despar supermarket in Venice told The Post.
8 A huge banner hoisted onto St Marks' bell tower in Venice, one of the most recognizable landmarks of the city, protesting Bezos' wedding.
Venezia NON è Disneyland/ Instargam
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8 The No Space for Bezos campaign — which sees the billionaire's wedding as the ultimate symbol of over-tourism — has been distributing stickers across Venice ahead of the wedding, which is set to take place next week.
AFP via Getty Images
8 The iconic Rialto bridge in the center of the city was draped with a protest sign, as one of the city's famous gondola operators look on.
REUTERS
Sources also said protesters were planning to arm themselves with water pistols to create more disturbances around the wedding.
A number of yacht berths have been reserved for six days for the wedding – expected to take place between June 24 and 26 – including at Marittima, San Basilio, Zattere, Punta della Dogana, and Riva dei Sette Martiri, twice the number locals were told would be allocated by authorities.
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Details of the wedding are shrouded in secrecy but it will include a rumored 200 guests — also expected to be mostly drawn from the jet setting ultra-rich.
Bezos' Koru yacht was just off the coast of Croatia Tuesday morning, according to
8 Jeff Bezos's $500 million superyacht, Koru, at sea. The yacht is the world's largest sailboat, measuring 417 feet.
AbacaPress /
8 A guide to the Koru, showing what it has aboard.
Mike Guillen/NY Post
8 People gathering in Venice to protest against the wedding of Bezos and Sanchez on June 13.
AFP via Getty Images
Over the last weekend, protesters in Venice hung a huge banner over St. Mark's tower in the city with 'Bezos' in blue capital letters and a red cross over it. The No Space for Bezos campaign – using a play on words related to the billionaire's Blue Origin space exploration company – have also unfurled banners and distributed stickers throughout the city.
The Venice protests come against a backdrop of locals taking action against what they call over-tourism across southern Europe. Meanwhile, staff at Paris' Louvre art gallery, the most visited museum in the world, went on strike yesterday, saying it allows too many visitors in.
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Around a thousand residents of Barcelona protested last Sunday by marching through a popular tourist area and spraying water pistols while slapping stickers reading 'Tourist Go Home!' on businesses and lamp posts.
Other protests have taken place in Genoa in Italy, Portuguese capital Lisbon and the Spanish island of Majorca. Residents say they are being priced out of their towns by the influx of tourists from around the world and the hotels and other infrastructure built to accommodate them.
