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Wedding festivities estimated to cost around $50 million

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Guest list includes Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Ivanka

Trump

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Protesters resent opulence, say ordinary people's needs

neglected in the city

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Businesses say the event is boost to the local economy

By Sara Rossi, Alvise Armellini

VENICE, June 27 (Reuters) - Amazon ( AMZN ) founder Jeff Bezos

and journalist Lauren Sanchez left their luxury hotel on

Venice's Grand Canal on Friday to head to their wedding

ceremony, the centrepiece of a three-day gala featuring dozens

of stars but also protests by local activists.

Sanchez, 55, waved and blew kisses to onlookers as she boarded a

sleek motor boat outside the Aman hotel wearing short-sleeved,

cream, fitted skirt suit, with shades and a head scarf to

protect her from the blistering summer sun.

Around two hours later Bezos, 61, wearing a black tuxedo and

bow tie over a white shirt, made the same short trip across the

lagoon to the small island of San Giorgio where the couple will

exchange rings, accompanied by singing from Matteo Bocelli, son

of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

The evening ceremony will have no legal status under Italian

law, a senior city hall official told Reuters, suggesting the

couple may have already legally wed in the United States,

avoiding the bureaucracy associated with an Italian

marriage.

The festivities, estimated to cost around $50 million, culminate

on Saturday with a party in a former medieval shipyard where

media outlets say Lady Gaga and Elton John are set to perform.

Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Tom Brady, the

queen of Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Kim and Khloe

Kardashian as well as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and

Domenico Dolce from Dolce & Gabbana are among the 200-250

guests.

Amid tight security, there have been glimpses of the

celebrities moving around town, the women in summer dresses and

high heels stepping somewhat gingerly off boats ferrying them

around the city's canals.

Celebrations began 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.

"This magical place has gifted us unforgettable memories,"

the bride and groom said on their wedding invitation, in which

they asked for "no gifts" and pledged charity donations for

three Venetian institutions.

Their donations are worth 3 million euros ($3.5 million).

PROTEST MOVEMENT

Businesses have welcomed the glitz and glamour but it is opposed

by a local protest movement whose members resent what they see

as Venice being gift-wrapped for ultra-rich outsiders. Bezos is

No. 4 on Forbes' global billionaires list.

Giulia Cacopardo, a 28-year-old representative of the "No

Space for Bezos" movement, complained that the needs of ordinary

people were being neglected in a city that is a tourist magnet

and fast depopulating largely due to the soaring cost of living.

Venice's city centre has less than 50,000 residents,

compared to almost 100,000 in the late 1970s.

"When you empty a city of its inhabitants, you can turn it

into a stage for big events," Cacopardo told Reuters. "(But) the

money that Bezos spends on this wedding does not end up in the

pockets of Venetians. The owners of luxury hotels are not

Venetians."

Cacopardo was one of 30-40 activists who staged a protest in

St Mark's Square on Thursday, chanting "We are the 99%" as a

masked couple posed as bride and groom and one man climbed a

pole to unfurl a banner reading "The 1% ruins the world".

Police intervened, forcibly removing the protesters.

The anti-Bezos front is planning a march on Saturday, and

their activities have already led authorities to step up

security and move the location of the closing party to a more

secluded part of Venice, the Arsenale former shipyard.

Charlotte Perkins, an Australian tourist, said she could

understand the locals' resentment at their city being treated as

a celebrity playground.

"I'd probably feel the same if I lived here," she said.

But politicians, hoteliers and some other Venice residents

are happy about the wedding, saying such events do more to

support the local economy than the multitudes of day-trippers

who normally overrun the city.

"We are happy and honoured to welcome Jeff Bezos and his

consort Lauren Sanchez," said Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, who sent

white roses to the bride and a maxi-bottle of Amarone luxury red

wine to the groom.

A study by Italy's tourism ministry estimated the overall

economic impact of the wedding at 957 million euros, with an 896

million euro boost from "media visibility", and the rest coming

from direct or indirect spending related to the event.

Bezos, Amazon's ( AMZN ) executive chair, got engaged to Sanchez in

2023, four years after the collapse of his 25-year marriage to

MacKenzie Scott.

($1 = 0.8545 euros)

(Additional reporting by Yara Nardi, Ali Kucukgocmen and

Cristiano Corvino; Writing by Alvise Armellini and Gavin Jones;

Editing by Frances Kerry and Alison Williams)