Met Gala tickets soar by staggering five-figure sum since final yr’s occasion – this is who really pays the worth

Nobody is under any illusion that the Met Gala comes cheap – but even by its famously stratospheric standards, this year’s ticket price has raised eyebrows.

The cost has jumped by a staggering $25,000 compared with last year, bringing the going rate to $100,000 – an increase of more than 30 percent, and far outpacing already soaring inflation.

But being able to afford a ticket does not guarantee a seat inside.

Every guest invited to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the first Monday in May must be approved personally by Anna Wintour, with Vogue ultimately overseeing the final guest list.

In reality, few attendees are likely to have paid the full $100,000 themselves, even if they could. Billionaires such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez are among those on the guest list.

More commonly, designers cover the cost of entire tables – typically priced at around $350,000 – and then invite the celebrities they wish to dress.

A-listers are often brought in as house guests of major fashion brands, arriving in custom looks from labels such as Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton, with both the ticket and outfit usually covered by the brand.

The Met Gala dates back to 1948, when fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert founded it as a midnight supper at the Waldorf Astoria to raise funds for the newly established Costume Institute. Tickets at the time cost $50 – roughly $700 in today’s money.

Now, proceeds from tickets and sponsorships contribute to record-breaking fundraising efforts for the Costume Institute, which raised $31 million last year alone.

Even so, while designers and sponsors typically purchase entire tables and invite their own hand-picked guests, every name still requires Wintour’s approval, with Vogue controlling the final seating plan.

In the 2016 documentary The First Monday in May, Vogue’s former director of special projects, Sylvana Ward Durrett, revealed just how carefully those arrangements are made – including one strict rule: ‘Never seat spouses next to each other.’

‘The whole point of these things is to meet new people and to be interested in what others are doing. What’s the point if you come here to hang out with your husband?’ she said.

That thinking explains why co-stars, family members and close friends are often deliberately separated, with tables mixing designers, actors, musicians, models and, more recently, influencers to encourage new connections.

This year’s $100,000 ticket covers far more than entry alone.

Guests are treated to a cocktail hour, a multi-course dinner, and headline performances – with past entertainment including Stevie Wonder and Usher last year, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in 2024, and Lizzo in 2023. 

For last year’s gala, Vogue tapped James Beard Award-winning chef Kwame Onwuachi to design the menu.

‘I was inspired by Black dandyism and the Black experience in fashion – it’s drawn from so many different avenues of the diaspora,’ says Onwuachi, whose restaurant Tatiana was named the best in New York City by the New York Times. ‘I wanted to encapsulate all of that, from the hors d’oeuvres to the plated dinner at the gala.’

But taste, he insists, always comes first. ‘We can be as poetic as we want, but it has to be good at the end of the day.’

At cocktail hour, guests were served elevated soul food on silver trays, including hoecakes with crispy chicken, mini chopped cheeses, cornbread topped with caviar, and curry chicken patties.

Dinner, served in the Temple of Dendur just after 8pm, opened with papaya piri-piri salad and cucumbers in Caribbean green seasoning.

The main course featured Creole roasted chicken with lemon emulsion, rice and peas, and fresh hot sauce, alongside BBQ collard greens with bacon and cornbread with honey-curry butter.

Dessert ended the night on a playful note: a Bodega Special Cosmic Brownie with powdered-sugar donut mousse and golden cake with honey-sweet cream and blistered gooseberry.

‘All throughout the meal, there are different aspects of Blackness throughout the world represented at the highest level,’ he says.