Activists from the "No Space For Bezos" group on Friday projected laser messages on the bell tower in St Mark's Square to protest Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's divisive three-day wedding bash that anti-capitalists and some locals have condemned for turning the lagoon city into a playground for the uber-rich and which local officials have welcomed for the major influx of cash and trade it has brought, including a three million dollar donation from the Amazon boss himself.
    Along the wall of the bell tower, the stylised head of the owner of Amazon appeared along with the words "Fck Bzs", and "No Space 4 Bezos".
    The action, the movement said, precedes a major protest planned for Saturday, with a procession that will start from the Santa Lucia station at 5:00 pm, for which arrivals are expected from all over the Northeast.
    Meanwhile, on Thursday night the exclusive kick-off party in the cloister of the Madonna dell'Orto was interrupted by a violent downpour that poured down on the historic lagoon center, forcing the VIP guests to flee in water-taxis.
    There were moments of tension on Thursday during a protest in St Mark's Square against Bezos and his huge wedding, which is drawing huge international atention.
    A group of around 20 people stood in front of St Mark's Basilica displaying placards with banknotes and slogans against the American billionaire and in favour of peace in Gaza.
    Then two people dressed as a bride and groom stood on a pedestal in a mock wedding and a young man and woman tried to climb the flagpoles in front of the basilica.
    Law enforcement intervened but the protestors attempted passive resistance, lying on the ground, when police moved to take them to a station for identification.
    Bezos and Sanchez are based at the same 7-star luxury hotel that George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin stayed in for their 2014 wedding in Venice.
    Bezos, 61, and Sanchez, 55, arrived in Venice Wednesday.
    Overall, te world's third richets man has hired dive 7-star hotesl for his over 200 all-star guests.
    Probably the most luxurious hotel in Venice, the Aman, inside the iconic Palazzo Papadopoli, has been the 'nest' for Bezos and journalist and pilot Sanchez since Thursday, in view of the exchange of rings in the Arsenale district on Friday evening, a pyjama party Friday night, and the blowout Great Gatsby themed after-party on Saturday.
    The docks in Venice are crowded with new billion-dollar yachts including the 'Were Dream', a 52-metre vessel owned by Russian businessman Andrej Kostin, anchored in Riva Sette Martiri.
    Mega yachts and private jets started arriving in Venice Tuesday for the three-day jamboree.
    Fund manager and philanthropist Bill Miller's 60-metre, 70 million dollar yacht l'Arience and billionaire Shahid 'Shad' Khan's 122-metre yacht Kismet were among the other vessels to dock in the lagoon city where protests about Bezos's "buyout" of the priciest major central amenities have gathered pace recently.
    The yacht belonging to Khan, who owns Premier League soccer club Fulham and NFL team Jackonsville Jaguars, is one of the few boats in the world with a cryotherapy room.
    Officials at Marco Polo Airport have been tight-lipped about who has arrived on the flock of private jets that have landed there, given the high security and secrecy surrounding the year's toniest global nuptials.
    But it is known that among the big names on the approximately 200-person guest list are Oprah Winfrey, Mick Jagger and Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as Katy Perry, who traveled to space alongside Sanchez on a Blue Origin flight in April, and Perry's newest ex Orlando Bloom.
    Other guests reportedly include Tom Brady, Kim Kardashian, Robert Pattinson, Bill Gates and Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka, who arrived in Modena Monday night and was spotted shopping in Venice Wednesday morning.
    The presence of Donald Jr has not been confirmed.
    Also this week, Greenpeace Italia and British action group Everyone Hates Elon unfurled a 400-square-meter banner in Saint Mark's Square protesting against Bezos.
    "If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax," the banner read.
    Greenpeace said the protest aimed to highlight the "social and climate injustice" of such events.
    "Bezos embodies an economic and social model that is leading us towards collapse," it said.
    "Social injustice increasingly goes hand in hand with climate injustice: on one side the arrogance of a few billionaires who have lifestyles that are devastating for the planet, on the other all the people who suffer the damage of the environmental crisis on a daily basis".
    Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said the protests were not a problem.
    "I am proud that Bezos and his friends are coming to celebrate the wedding here," he said.
    "We invited him and we are convinced that Venice has taken on a global role from this point of view.
    "Everyone has their own ideas, we are in a democracy.
    "If done peacefully, the protests are neither scary nor annoying".
    Tech giant Bezos has four children from a previous marriage and former news anchor Sanchez three.
    MacKenzie Scott, 55, is the former wife of Bezos, marrying him in 1993 and divorcing him in 2019.

Scott is a writer, philanthropist, and co-founder of Amazon.com.
    Sánchez shares a son, Nikko, 24, with her ex boyfriend, retired NFL player Tony Gonzalez.

She's also mother to Evan, 18, and Ella, 17, from her previous marriage to media executive Patrick Whitesell.
   

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