Admission to the sold-out event, sponsored by Pepsi, started at $10,000 for two and ranges up to $100,000 for 50 VIP admissions and 20 tickets to a pre-ball dinner, with proceeds going to the coalition's arts advocacy programs.
Not all events are high-profile. Some seek to avoid publicity. Tomorrow night, for example, there's an invitation-only reception for new members of Congress at the ritzy Charlie Palmer steakhouse.
Who's paying for it?
"My sponsors have asked me to keep them out of the press," said event planner Ryan Costello.
According to the www.welcomenewmembers.com Web site, sponsors include Wal-Mart, Kraft, Heineken, the Food Marketing Institute and several other businesses and trade groups.
Although networking would seem to be the primary political benefit of all the partying, at least a few events are geared toward raising campaign money.
Tomorrow afternoon, lawyers and lobbyists affiliated with the Greenberg Traurig law firm are hosting a $1,000-per-person reception for Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, a staunch Obama supporter and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, with proceeds earmarked for Conyers' political action committee.
Comedian and Minnesota Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken, who is locked in an historically close and still unsettled race with GOP incumbent Norm Coleman, leveraged his show business ties to snag Mickey Hart and Bob Weir, onetime members of the Grateful Dead, to headline a Sunday brunch.
Tickets to the event range from $1,000 to $12,500, with proceeds earmarked for Franken's recount battle with Coleman, now in the Minnesota courts.
Franken leads by 225 votes.
