The Met Gala is a relatively small event, only open to a small number of invited guests – usually around 450.
Tables cost upwards of around $350,000 (£258,000), while individual tickets are reported to go for about $75,000 (£56,000).
Very few celebrities actually pay for their own tickets, however.
They instead receive invitations from fashion brands, many of whom host celebrities as their guests.
If an A-list star wears the brand’s clothes and sits at their table, it generates publicity for the company that justifies the price of the table.
But despite picking up the bill, fashion houses still need to run every proposed guest past the queen of fashion herself.
Anna Wintour, chair of the Met Gala since 1995 and head of content at Vogue publisher Condé Nast, personally has to sign off on every invitation.