Why was the 2020 Met Gala canceled?

The 2020 Met Gala was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The gala had been scheduled for May 4, 2020, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art closed temporarily as New York became one of the major early centers of the global outbreak. Large public gatherings were restricted to slow transmission of the virus.

The planned exhibition, “About Time: Fashion and Duration,” was also affected by the museum closure. The Costume Institute later presented the exhibition in a modified form, and the gala itself did not take place in 2020.

The event returned with a smaller gala in September 2021 rather than its usual first-Monday-in-May schedule. The 2021 event introduced “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” while its second part was presented at the regular May date in 2022.