Fashion’s biggest night out returns to New York City this evening as the Metropolitan Museum of Art prepares to welcome couture-wearing celebrities back to its steps.
But as tech billionaires buy their way into the mainstream, the event is making headlines even before the kickoff—not for who might be the best dressed, but who is underwriting the festivities.
Held the first Monday of every May, the Met Gala is an invitation-only benefit fundraiser in support of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.
The gathering has become an iconic event, synonymous with status and fashion, with its organizer, Anna Wintour, filling the tables with celebrities and those wealthy enough to afford the $100,000 tickets.
“Party like it’s 1939”
But in the weeks leading up to this year’s event, which takes place tonight (Monday, May 4), members of the British activist group Everyone Hates Elon have taken to the streets of New York City to voice their opposition to the 2026 Met Gala’s lead sponsors: Lauren Sánchez Bezos and Jeff Bezos.
Around the city, various ads have been hacked by the activist group, like one in a bus stop that now reads, “The Bezos Met Gala invites you to party like it’s 1939.”
Below it is a picture of Bezos raising a flute of champagne, resembling Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jay Gatsby, with the suggested dress code reading “willful ignorance.”
In another ad, this one inside a subway car, a poster with the Met’s red colorway says, “Jeff Bezos Proudly Presents the Met x enabling ICE,” a reference to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which uses Amazon’s AWS cloud services.
A pop-up located in front of the Met includes a sign, which from afar looks like typical event-safety signage, along with a basket holding some empty plastic bottles—alluding to a class action lawsuit by Amazon drivers who alleged that they were forced to pee in bottles while working.
The sign, labeled “Met Gala VIP Toilet,” says it is installed in honor of Bezos. “Go ahead, it’s good enough for his staff,” the plaque reads.
The creative protests have even made their way inside the museum.
Inside the Met Museum Gift Shop, the activist group placed parody merchandise, including “The Bezos Met Gala” decorative plates with taglines including “the world’s most expensive midlife crisis” and “from the man whose servers power ICE.”
Fast Company reached out to the Met and reps for the Bezoses through their Bezos Earth Fund for comment.
Everyone Hates Elon, which has amassed a large online following, describes itself as “pissing off billionaires, one small action at a time.” While the British group bears Elon Musk’s name, it has taken to publicly criticizing billionaires more broadly.
Back in June of last year, the group covered the Piazza San Marco in Venice with a massive banner in opposition to the Bezos and Sánchez’s controversial wedding. Once again, the group is showing up in opposition to the Amazon founder.
Some celebrities are skipping the Met glamour
Activists are not the only ones voicing their opposition to this year’s Met Gala.
While not all critics are publicly citing the gala’s controversial sponsors as their reason for skipping, many famous faces will be missing from the gathering, including Zendaya, Bella Hadid, and Zohran Mamdani, despite past mayors attending.
Meanwhile, several blocks down from the museum, activists also took to Bezos’s $80 million penthouse in NYC’s trendy NoMad neighborhood, projecting a video message from a 72-year-old Amazon worker from North Carolina.
“Remember, Jeff, ordinary people like myself that help make you billionaires—if we built it, we can tear it down,” the worker, identified as Mary, says in the video. “Think about that tonight.”