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Wedding festivities estimated to cost around $50 million

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Guests include Ivanka Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates

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Protest march planned in central Venice on Saturday

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Venice mayor says Bezos embodies Venetian business

mentality

By Sara Rossi

VENICE, June 28 (Reuters) - Amazon ( AMZN ) founder Jeff Bezos

and journalist Lauren Sanchez, flush from their Venice wedding

ceremony on Friday, are gearing up for the final day of partying

in the lagoon city with scores of celebrity guests from media,

fashion and show business.

The three-day gala, estimated to cost some $50 million, will

culminate on Saturday evening with the closing party in a former

medieval shipyard where Lady Gaga and Elton John are expected to

perform.

Bezos, 61, and Sanchez, 55, exchanged rings on Friday

evening on the small island of San Giorgio, across the water

from Saint Mark's Square, accompanied by singing from Matteo

Bocelli, son of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

The bride at the ceremony wore a high-necked silhouette

dress and a tulle and lace veil by Dolce and Gabbana, which she

told magazine Vogue was based on Sophia Loren's dress to marry

Cary Grant in the 1958 film Houseboat.

Sanchez was also wearing a pair of diamond earrings by Dolce

& Gabbana, which, according to Vogue, were lent to her in

keeping with the tradition that it brings good luck for a bride

to wear something borrowed.

Bezos, who is No. 4 on Forbes' global billionaires list,

donned a black tuxedo and bow tie over a white shirt.

The ceremony had 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.

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

Jordan's Queen Rania, Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Kim and

Khloe Kardashian, as well as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and

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

guests.

PROTEST SCHEDULED

While the celebrities rub shoulders in the isolated halls in

the east of the city, not far away activists will be protesting

at what they see as Venice being gift-wrapped for ultra-rich

outsiders.

A protest march is planned at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Saturday

from the railway station to the Rialto Bridge.

For days, members of the "No Space for Bezos" movement have

been trying to spoil the party, hanging anti-Bezos banners on

the iconic Rialto Bridge and laying out a huge canvas in central

Saint Mark's Square telling the tech-tycoon to pay more taxes.

While some residents and activists see Bezos's extravaganza

as a symbol of inequality and arrogance, Venice's businesses and

the city authorities have welcomed the event, claiming a major

boost for the local economy.

"Those who protest are in contradiction with the history of

Venice, which is a history of relations, contacts and business,"

the city's mayor Luigi Brugnaro told Reuters in an interview.

"Bezos embodies the Venetian mentality, he is more Venetian

than the protesters," said centre-right mayor, adding that he

hoped Bezos, who donated 3 million euros ($3.51 million) to

local institutions, would return to the city to do business.

Brugnaro said Bezos had attached no conditions to holding

his wedding celebrations in Venice, and City Hall had only

learned about his donations after they had already been made.

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 = 0.8552 euros)

(Writing by Gavin Jones and Angelo Amante; Editing by Alexandra

Hudson)