Not even celebrities strutting onto the red carpet of the exclusive 2024 Met Gala, fashion’s biggest event of the year, were insulated from the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel students protest that have taken over many streets in New York City since October 7. 

Just a few blocks from where the likes of Zendaya and Kim Kardashian exited glossy black vans to hit the red carpet on Monday night, chants for a “ceasefire now” echoed the streets as a protest organized by the activist group Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine raged on.

Protestors wearing masks and keffiyehs marched down Madison Avenue toward the Metropolitan Museum of Art, illegally removing barricades that had blocked access to 5th Avenue. The New York Police Department officers arrested several protesters after smoke bombs and flares were set off. 

The protest originated further away from the famed gala, outside of Hunter College, where hundreds of protesters convened as part of the “Citywide Day of Rage” that took place across New York City schools. At a smaller demonstration in Central Park, protesters took direct aim at the famed event with signs that read “No Met Gala While Bombs Drop in Gaza” and “No Celebration Without Liberation.”

Monday was also Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Despite the chaotic climate just blocks away, politics did not appear to ascend the Met steps at the annual gala, co-chaired by Vogue’s longtime editor, Anna Wintour. The peace was achieved in part because Condé Nast, which publishes Vogue, and the union representing some employees of Vogue and other Condé Nast publications, struck a tentative union contract just 12 hours before guests arrived at the museum, avoiding disruptive protests from Condé Nast’s own employees on Vogue’s big night. The gala was free of any fashion controversy like the “Tax the Rich” dress worn by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the 2021 gala.