Shivalik
The Met Gala will not be taking place as scheduled on May 4, 2020 thanks to the outbreak of COVID-19 globally.
The annual red carpet event, hosted by Vogue's editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, may be a celebrity-packed fundraiser for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Since 2005, the event has been held, on the first Monday in May -- it also marks the launch of its spring exhibition, reports cnn.com.
This year's exhibition, "About Time: Fashion and Duration", is sponsored by luxury fashion label Louis Vuitton. it's been billed as a journey through the history of fashion from 1870 to today.
On Friday the Metropolitan Museum announced it might be shutting its doors temporarily, causing speculation that the gala's organisers would follow. Writing on Vogue.com on Monday, Wintour confirmed that the fundraiser wouldn't be held as planned.
"Due to the unavoidable and responsible decision by the Metropolitan Museum to close its doors, About Time, and the opening night gala, will be postponed to a later date," she wrote.
She added that the magazine would nonetheless be previewing the "extraordinary exhibition" in its May issue.
In a statement, a museum spokesperson wrote: "The Museum will remain closed through Saturday, April 4. Additionally, the CDC advised over the weekend that there should not be any gatherings of 50 people or more for the next eight weeks. In deference to this guidance, all programs and events through May 15 will be cancelled or postponed."
This is not the primary time the event has had a change of plans in its 72-year history. There are years when the gala wasn't held at all , most notably in 1963, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and in 2002, following 9/11.
This year's exhibition was due to form part of the Met's wider 150th-anniversary celebrations. it had been set to feature 160 fashion items, and was scheduled to hospitable the general public from May 7, three days after the gala, until September 7.
