Activists in Venice are stepping up protests in an try to disrupt, and even forestall, the deliberate marriage ceremony celebrations of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Emmy-winning journalist, pilot and entrepreneur Lauren Sánchez subsequent week.

As anticipated by Selection in April, preparations for the three-day nuptial festivities – reportedly anticipated to happen June 26-28 – have been elevating the hackles of activists who declare that Venice is changing into a playground for the wealthy to the detriment of its inhabitants. In consequence, the activists have began a “No House for Bezos” marketing campaign, a play on phrases on Bezos’ Blue Origin spaceflight enterprise.

Over the weekend, they hung an enormous banner on St. Mark’s Tower in Venice with “Bezos” in blue capital letters and a purple X over it. The “No House for Bezos” marketing campaign has additionally unfurled different banners and pasted stickers on partitions all through town.

“This marriage ceremony is the image of the exploitation of town by outsiders,” Federica Toninelli, a 33-year-old Venetian activist affiliated with the “No House for Bezos” protesters, advised Reuters.

Now, the protesters are threatening to dam entry to canals in addition to town’s slim streets to forestall the reported roughly 200 visitors invited to the Bezos-Sánchez marriage ceremony from reaching numerous celebration venues.

Invited visitors reportedly embody Katy Perry, a number of the Kardashians, Eva Longoria, Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King. 

In the meantime, Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro mentioned he hoped the protest gained’t reach disrupting Bezos and Sanchez’s marriage ceremony plans. “We must apologize to Bezos,” Brugnaro advised reporters in Venice on Friday. “I’m ashamed of those that behave like this. I hope that Bezos comes anyway,” he added, noting that “not all Venetians suppose like these protesters.”

If the Bezos-Sánchez marriage ceremony celebrations undergo, they may mark the most important nuptial bash to be held in Venice since George Clooney married Amal Alamuddin on the lagoon in 2014, a star-studded affair that was pulled off with no hitch.