The Met Gala, held on the first Monday in May, costs approximately $100,000 a ticket and boasts an impressive guestlist featuring well-loved A-list celebrities and influencers alike. All attendees pay tribute to the gala’s fundraiser for the costume art exhibit and many future spring exhibitions, with the gala amassing over $42 million in donations this year alone.

One of the most notable contributions come from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sánchez Bezos, who donated $10 million to the foundation.

The Met Gala drew increased scrutiny this year as the protest movement known as the “Resistance Red Carpet” circulated to challenge the event and its wealthy and controversial donors.

The group staged a satirical display of a runway to criticize what it viewed as merely the influence of billionaires and the culture of American elitism.

“The Met Gala is giving the kind of reputation laundering and cultural rocket fuel he needs to keep destroying America,” protestor Cynthia Nixon said.

The Met has previously faced backlash with several of its donors and patrons, including conservative political backers like the Koch family and the Sackler family, whose name had been removed from several Met galleries since 2021 following public criticism.

As of late, the Bezos family has become a top patron, having been more active in fashion trends through donations of tens of millions of dollars in grants and support for sustainable fabrics.

The Resistance Red Carpet was a theatrical performance that showcased individuals in handcrafted costumes illustrating both political messages and climate issues. The designs ranged from humorous to vulgar imagery, with messages like “Tax the rich,” “Bezos greenwashes his climate crimes” and “Resist.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani skipped this year’s Met Gala, saying his top objective is to provide affordability for all New Yorkers.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio also criticized the culture of elite events, stating, “the sense that the elites are living a life so far away from the rest of us, the sense that the system is rigged.”

A guerrilla activist group called “Everyone Hates Elon” presented itself after Elon Musk was shown to host a campaign to boycott the Met Gala event. This act led to many satirical posters of Bezos being displayed on all buses and trains.

That same day, an anti-billionaire message against Bezos was projected onto the Empire State Building, reading, “Boycott the Bezos Met Gala.”

The Resistance Red Carpet also highlighted concerns about workplace safety for Amazon workers, specifically regarding reports that workers were punished for taking bathroom breaks, by placing approximately 300 fabricated urine bottles across all the exhibits in the Met.

“We’re in favor of building a system where working people can actually afford to live in these cities that they’re running,” Debt Gala founder Molly Gaebe said.

“That’s exactly the donors that we want, and those are the donors that museums like ours need to have,” Max Hollien told CNN.

The Met Gala had defended the involvement of Bezos, emphasizing its agreement of valued integrity and financial support to the Met’s program.