Photograph by Alex Cretey Systermans / Connected Archives
Venice plays host this weekend to what some have dubbed the “wedding of the century.”
More than 90 private jets touched down in northern Italy this week, ferrying celebrities, politicians, and tech titans for the three-day wedding of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez. The celebration is estimated to cost between $47-$56 million.
The reaction to the outsized spectacle was so intense that the ceremony’s venue was cordoned off and later changed to physically separate attendees from the growing number of climate activists who have spent weeks protesting what they call the transformation of Venice into a “private amusement park” for the rich. “If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax” read one banner erected across St. Mark’s Square.
“Bezos represents not only himself, but everything that this city has been fighting against for years: exploitation of jobs and territories, pollution and wild extractivism, technology and financial control of our lives,”No space for Bezos, an activist collective leading the protests, shared in a statement. “[This wedding] is at the expense of those who live, work, and study in this city [and who are] already faced with countless difficulties after years of mass tourism.”
The event has become a flashpoint over who gets to shape the future of the city. A UNESCO heritage site known in part for its climate vulnerability, Venice is quite literally sinking. The surrounding lagoon is rising at about 0.2 inches per year, according to a study published in 2024 by Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. In some areas, like Lido and Malamocco, the rate is even faster. Scientists warn that parts of the city could be permanently underwater by 2150 based on current trends.
“The protest by the citizens of Venice has succeeded in thwarting the plans of the most powerful men in the world. His attempt to rent Venice was met by a lively city that did not bow to the arrogance of a group of billionaire, self-proclaimed kings.”
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No space for Bezos
Against this backdrop, the arrival of dozens of private jets—each around five to 14 times more polluting per passenger than a commercial flight—felt, to many locals, painfully symbolic of the times. A report released today found that private jets produced more greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 than all flights departing Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest airports. In this context, a city under threat from planetary warming playing host to one of the world’s wealthiest men, surrounded by ultra-rich guests arriving by the most polluting means possible, struck a particularly raw nerve.
It’s why organizations like We Are Here Venice are advocating for sustainable development through research and awareness-raising campaigns to preserve the city and the lagoon. “[We are] engaged in analyses and investigations concerning the increasingly fragile social fabric of the city as well as the design and implementation of projects to restore the wetlands of the lagoon and regenerate the characteristic biodiversity,” said Jane da Mosto, the nonprofit’s co-founder and executive director. While da Mosto notes that the forces eroding Venice are longstanding and constant, the Bezos wedding has thrown them into sharp relief and exposed the widening gap between preservation and privilege.
The protestors saw the wedding celebration’s relocation to the outskirts of the city as a rare win in a Venice increasingly shaped by private wealth. Their message was clear: Public space—and the future it represents—isn’t for sale.
“The protest by the citizens of Venice has succeeded in thwarting the plans of the most powerful men in the world,” a representative of No space for Bezos shared. “Bezos thought he could rent the entire historic center of Venice, but instead he was forced to hole up in the Arsenale. His attempt to rent Venice was met by a lively city that did not bow to the arrogance of a group of billionaire, self-proclaimed kings.”
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