The Met Gala is one of the most exclusive events on the celebrity calendar.
Each year, Vogue’s editor in chief, Anna Wintour, approves the guest list, but attendance requires more than an invitation — there’s also a hefty entry fee.
The New York Times reported that individual tickets for the 2026 Met Gala, a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, cost $100,000, with tables starting at $350,000.
Celebrities, however, are usually not the ones paying for their tickets. Tables are generally purchased by design houses, brands, or companies, who then choose the guests they’d like to invite to the table, a decision that requires Wintour’s approval.
Only a select group of Wintour-approved people experience the grandeur of the Met Gala while the rest of us are left to wonder just what that entails.
Beyond the famed red carpet and the over-the-top fashion, here’s a peek inside the Met’s walls on fashion’s biggest night, including the cocktails, menus, exhibits, and exclusive performances attendees get to witness.
A ticket grants you the most important thing of all: access.
There was once a time when even Kim Kardashian couldn’t get an invite to the Met Gala.
Amy Odell, the author of “Anna: The Biography,” told Time in 2024 that an invitation was a “really huge signifier that you are ‘in.'”
Eaddy Kiernan, Vogue’s contributing editor and Met Gala organizer, told Vogue in 2024 that prep for the seating chart began in December but ultimately came together a month before the event.
“We really try to think very carefully about who’s sitting next to each other,” Kiernan said. “Our ideal pairing would maybe be two people who we think will just get on like a house on fire, but who may not even realize that they have a lot in common. So with each person, we really do take time to think, ‘What will they talk about?'”
Such access and quality seating have the potential to yield incredible business outcomes.
With access secured, attendees walk the red carpet in outfits meticulously planned in accordance with the dress code and theme.
Here’s Blake Lively at the 2018 Met Gala, which was themed “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.”
This year, the theme is “Costume Art,” and the dress code is “Fashion Is Art.”
Once inside, celebrities mingle during cocktail hour.
Guests of the 2025 Met Gala could enjoy elevated bites inspired by soul food, such as “hoecakes with crispy chicken, mini chopped cheeses, cornbread topped with caviar, and curry chicken patties,” Vogue reported.
The cocktail hour, of course, features signature drinks.
Here’s a tray of one of the signature cocktails served at the 2025 gala.
Guests can also view the Met’s exhibit during cocktail hour.
In 2021 (pictured), the exhibit was “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.”
This year, the “Costume Art” exhibit will be held in the new Condé M. Nast Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and will focus on the “dressed body.”
“Rather than prioritizing fashion’s visuality, which often comes at the expense of the corporeal, Costume Art privileges its materiality and the indivisible connection between our bodies and the clothes we wear,” the Met said.
After cocktail hour, guests take their seats for a formal dinner.
In accordance with 2025’s theme, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” the tablescape and menu were inspired by “Black dandyism and the Black experience in fashion,” said chef Kwame Onwuachi, who created the menu.
The dining room decoration was designed to mimic the “elaborate cabinetry one would see at a London suit shop,” Vogue reported.
Last year, the dinner menu included Creole-roasted chicken and rice and peas.
In 2025, the gala dinner included a papaya piri-piri salad, Creole roasted chicken and rice and peas served with a fresh hot sauce, and side options of barbecue collard greens with bacon and cornbread with honey-curry butter, Vogue reported.
Dessert included a take on a bodega Cosmic Brownie, including a “powdered-sugar-donut mousse,” as well as a golden cake with honey cream and blistered gooseberries, per Vogue.
Surprise performances are also a key feature of the night.
Bieber’s 2021 denim-on-denim outfit was more Canadian tuxedo than “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” but we’d still love to know how the room reacted to his surprise performance, which included hits like “Lonely,” “Hold On,” “Anyone,” and “Baby.”
The tradition of Met Gala performances started in 2010, when Lady Gaga sang “Bad Romance” as part of the year’s “American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity” exhibit.
Other notable performances include Frank Ocean’s “Super Rich Kids” in 2014 and Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” in 2018.
Usher and Stevie Wonder were the latest Met Gala performers.
Last year, musical performances were spread throughout the night, starting with a 20-person chorus performing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” on the red carpet steps as guests began to arrive, Vogue reported.
The group was later joined by the Matt Jones Orchestra inside the Gala’s Great Hall, where they performed renditions of iconic R&B, disco, and reggae songs throughout the night.
More performances included the Voices of Fire choir from Virginia and New York’s High and Mighty Brass Band.
Headlining the dinner performance were Usher and Stevie Wonder, who performed some of their greatest hits before ending the night with a duet of Wonder’s “Another Star.”
Attendees still have plenty of time to party throughout the night.
Here are the rappers Cardi B, Bad Bunny, and Doja Cat striking a pose in 2023.
For those who can’t get enough of the fun, there are enough after-parties to attend around town.
After the gala, celebrities often change into different looks before hitting another round of red carpets and events.
In 2025, Richie Akiva, Willy Chavarria, Teyana Taylor, Janelle Monáe, and co-chairs ASAP Rocky and Pharrell all hosted after-parties for the gala.
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