Macklemore’s ‘Free Palestine’ Tour: Dates, Charities and Sheeran Fallout

• Update, Sept. 26: Ed Sheeran’s two Gillette Stadium shows, set for Sept. 25 and 26, were canceled by the promoter because of the nor’easter. Tickets are being refunded.
• Sept. 24: Macklemore announced a “Free Palestine” tour, promoted by Live Nation: Dublin on Oct. 26, Paris on Oct. 29 and London on Oct. 30, with all proceeds going to 12 organizations.
• Ed Sheeran opened his Sept. 19 show in Philadelphia with an apology: “I am making mistakes, and I’m so, so sorry.” He played without an opener.
• Macklemore was removed from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour on Sept. 14 after saying “Free Palestine” onstage at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 4 and 5.
• He is donating the $1 million he earned on the U.S. run to six humanitarian organizations, and challenged Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft to match it. Kraft announced $2 million.
• All four remaining opening acts — Finneas, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Beoga — quit the tour on Sept. 15.

One line from a stadium stage cost Macklemore the rest of Ed Sheeran’s tour. Now he is building his own around it.

The rapper, whose name is Ben Haggerty, said “Free Palestine” during his opening set at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Sept. 4, then performed “Hind’s Hall.” Ten days later he was off Ed Sheeran‘s Loop Tour.

What is Macklemore’s Free Palestine tour?

Three shows, announced on Instagram this week with the line that his “schedule freed up a bit”: Dublin on Oct. 26, Paris on Oct. 29 and London on Oct. 30. The poster bills him “and friends”; no other artists have been named.

The promoter is Live Nation, which says the shows will “center Palestine and Palestinians.” All proceeds go to 12 organizations, among them the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, Medical Aid for Palestinians, UNRWA USA, Gaza Soup Kitchen and Jewish Voice for Peace.

It’s 2026. Being apolitical during a genocide doesn’t work anymore.

Macklemore, on Instagram

“When the billionaire class can decide which voices are allowed on stage and which ones are too dangerous to hear, everyone should be paying attention,” he wrote.

Why is Macklemore’s tour drawing backlash?

Robert Kraft, whose stadium refused him, has said his objection goes beyond the “Free Palestine” line. He cited the MetLife shows “and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community.”

Kraft did not specify. Critics online pointed to the 2014 Grammys, where Macklemore wore a disguise with a wig, fake beard and hooked nose. The Israeli-American Council had already petitioned for his removal from Sheeran’s tour.

Macklemore apologized for the costume in 2014, and the Anti-Defamation League said then that it took him “at his word that he did not have any ill intent.”

What did Ed Sheeran say in Philadelphia?

Alone at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday, Sept. 19, his first show since the openers walked out, Sheeran started with an apology before he started with a song.

I’ve had to take and make difficult decisions and I am making mistakes, and I’m so, so sorry.

Ed Sheeran, onstage in Philadelphia

He called the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack “horrific,” said Israel’s war in Gaza is “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate,” and said he had “never wanted to be an activist musician.”

He also skipped the small stage in the middle of the crowd, saying he did not know if he would have things thrown at him.

About 50 pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered a few blocks from the stadium before the show.

Why were Ed Sheeran’s Gillette Stadium shows canceled?

Weather. The next stop was Kraft’s Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Friday and Saturday (Sept. 25 and 26). On Friday, promoter Messina Touring canceled both nights as a nor’easter moved into New England:

Due to the severe weather warnings in place in Boston and across New England throughout the weekend and following consultation with local officials, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the Ed Sheeran concerts at Gillette Stadium.

— Messina Touring

The shows were canceled, not postponed, and no new dates were announced. That is what triggers the refund: tickets bought on Ticketmaster are refunded automatically to the original payment method, and resale tickets through the site where they were bought. Sheeran had not commented by Friday night.

Why did Ed Sheeran drop Macklemore?

Sheeran says he did not. The removal was announced on Sept. 14 by Messina Touring Group, the tour’s promoter, which said venues would not proceed with Macklemore on the bill.

Sheeran posted a statement the next day. “I am appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine,” he wrote, calling the suffering on both sides “a human tragedy,” and said the removal was “the promoter’s decision, it was not mine.”

Macklemore’s account is more specific. In a statement of roughly 1,000 words on Instagram, he said Sheeran told him that Kraft “barred him from performing there and persuaded other stadium owners to issue a similar ultimatum.”

Between the two shows and the removal, venue representatives contacted the promoter with concerns and were told Macklemore would not mention Palestine again. On his second night, Sept. 5, he addressed Jewish fans directly: “Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide, is in no way a criticism of you.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that Kraft spent about 40 minutes on the phone with Sheeran, joined by fellow NFL owners Arthur Blank, David Tepper and Jeffrey Lurie.

Robert Kraft issued his own statement on Sept. 14. He said Palestinian suffering is real — “Their pain and loss is real” — placed responsibility on Hamas, and offered to meet: “I would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Macklemore and discuss the facts.”

Kraft did not dispute Macklemore’s description of the pressure campaign.

Who actually decides who opens a stadium tour?

Not the headliner, most of the time. This is the part of the story that makes all three statements fit together, and it is worth understanding before deciding who is telling the truth.

A support act’s contract is almost always with the promoter, not with the star whose name is on the ticket. The promoter books the building, sells the show, pays the opener and can replace the opener.

The building is the other lever. A stadium is rented, and the rental agreement gives the venue a say over who is allowed on the property. An owner who refuses one performer does not have to cancel anything — the promoter simply has no room to put him in.

Taking a side can cost you. Money, brand deals, sponsorships, festivals, private shows, relationships and access.

— Macklemore, in his Sept. 14 Instagram statement

So Sheeran can accurately say the decision was the promoter’s, the promoter can accurately say the venues refused, and Macklemore can accurately say a stadium owner ended his run. Those are three links in one chain, not three competing stories.

How much does a stadium opener make?

Macklemore put his own number on it: $1 million for the U.S. leg. Spread across a stadium run, that is roughly a mid-five-figure fee per night — real money, and a small fraction of what the headliner grosses in the same building.

It is also why the gesture lands. An opener does not have a tour’s worth of merchandise and VIP packages to fall back on. The fee is close to the whole of what the job paid.

Where is Macklemore’s $1 million going?

To six organizations: the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, HEAL Palestine, Gaza Soup Kitchen, Medical Aid for Palestinians, American Near East Refugee Aid and UNRWA USA. He announced it on Sept. 16 and challenged Kraft to match him.

Kraft then announced $2 million, without naming recipients. Kraft has said Sheeran had asked him to commit that amount for aid. The children’s educator Ms. Rachel said she would match Macklemore’s $1 million to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

Which opening acts quit?

All of them. Finneas, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and the Irish band Beoga withdrew on Sept. 15, leaving the remaining U.S. dates without a support bill.

“Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed,” Finneas wrote. Lukas Graham posted that “Money doesn’t give you the right to own the conversation.” Rowe and Beoga, both Irish, framed their exits around Ireland’s own history of famine and colonization.

More on Macklemore and the rest of our Music coverage, including the death of Spring Awakening composer Duncan Sheik. Elsewhere this week, a comedy broke the Emmy record.

— Bruno Monteiro

Sources: Messina Touring statement (Sept. 25, 2026), as reported by The Associated Press and NBC Boston; Free Palestine tour: Macklemore on Instagram and Live Nation, as reported by Variety (Zack Sharf) and NBC News (Doha Madani), which also reported the 2014 apology and the ADL’s response. Macklemore’s Instagram statement, Sept. 14 and Sept. 16, 2026; Ed Sheeran’s Instagram statement, Sept. 15, 2026; Robert Kraft’s statement, Sept. 14, 2026; Messina Touring Group’s announcement, Sept. 14, 2026; statements from Finneas, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Beoga, Sept. 15, 2026. Reporting: The Wall Street Journal (the Kraft call); NPR; The Washington Post; CNN; Variety; CNBC; NBC News. Photos: frames from “Macklemore – Chant (Live on KEXP)” (KEXP), “Ed Sheeran – Sapphire (Live from Marseille)” (Ed Sheeran’s official channel) and CBS Mornings, Sept. 15, 2026.