Last month, Macklemore launched his Free Palestine tour in response to his removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour at the behest of stadium owners who opposed his vocal support of Palestinians in Gaza. It proved to be a success, with three sold-out shows in Paris,
Dublin, and London. Confident fans would show up in support and solidarity, he made plans to bring the tour stateside — but he claims nine different U.S. venues turned him down.
“In over twenty years of touring, I’ve never experienced anything like this,” Macklemore wrote on Instagram. The outreach process began weeks ago, he claims, and “by mid-September, we received available dates at these arenas through the end of the year. But once they found out these were my benefit shows for Palestine, those dates were suddenly off the table. The doors were closed. The conversations were all different, but the result was the same. The shows were not going to be allowed to happen in these venues.”
The named locations include Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, and UBS Arena in New York; Prudential Center in New Jersey; Intuit Dome, Kia Forum, and Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles; Chase Center in San Francisco; and Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, the rapper’s hometown. (Representatives for each venue did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.)
“The trouble with buying power is believing you’ve bought the people too. The billionaires depend on our silence and complicity. They forget that we buy their tickets. We fill their arenas. We build their empires. And we have the power to bring them down,” the rapper added. “The people have spoken. We want an end to the genocide and we want a Free Palestine. The arenas have made their decision. Now we’ll make ours. If they think the threat of never playing another arena in America will make me retreat into silence, they got me fucked up.”
In September, the promoter of the U.S. leg of Sheeran’s Loop Tour said venues booked for the tour notified them “that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup.” Robert Kraft, who owns Gillette Stadium just outside of Boston, confirmed as much, saying the location is committed to “providing a welcoming environment for all guests and ensuring that all events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech.”
“I’d rather lose every opportunity in this industry than spend another day protecting people who value their business relationships with Israel more than they value Palestinian human life,” Macklemore said. “We live in a country that prides itself on freedom of speech. Yet we’ve reached a point where a handful of billionaires can decide which causes are acceptable, which voices are welcome and which human lives are worth defending. Today it’s Palestine. What will it be tomorrow? To these owners, the words Free Palestine represent a threat. Not because they endanger anyone, but because those words challenge the systems of power they have built their fortunes on.”
Sheeran argued that the decision to remove Macklemore as an opener, backed by the venues and promoters, came down to not wanting to disappoint fans or impact the other people working on the tour by cancelling. The explanation weakened as the rest of his opening acts withdrew in solidarity, as well as his backing band, Beoga, who joined Macklemore during the Dublin concert on the Free Palestine tour. A wave of artists spoke out in defense of free speech and artistic expression; and when it came time to back Macklemore’s tour, acts like Hozier and Kneecap joined eagerly.
“To the artists who are afraid of what those two words [“Free Palestine”] might cost them, I understand that fear. I felt it myself, especially when I was still wrestling with whether to speak out. But I believe that fear begins to lose its power the moment we realize we’re not standing alone,” Macklemore said. “I dream of a world where saying Free Palestine is not controversial. It is expected. Where artists value their freedom of speech and collective liberation more than their brand deals.”
He added, “Look at what just happened in Europe. Three sold-out arenas. Tens of thousands of people from different backgrounds, religions and walks of life standing together. More than forty artists and speakers putting their names and platforms behind Palestinian liberation. For all the attempts to paint this movement as one rooted in hatred, what filled those rooms was love.”
Proceeds from the Free Palestine Tour benefitted a collection of organizations supporting Palestinians in Gaza, including Medical Aid for Palestinians, Palestinian Youth Movement, Heal Palestine, Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, Gaza Soup Kitchen, Jewish Voices for Peace, and the UNRWA USA National Committee.
In his statement, Macklemore emphasized that the support of this movement extends far beyond music. He mentioned Michigan senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, who “won his Senate race on a platform that included ending the genocide in Gaza and stopping U.S. arms sales to Israel.” (Humanitarian groups and a United Nations commission have said Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide. Israel and its allies, including the United States, have denied this.)
A ceasefire agreement approved by Israel took effect on Oct. 10, 2025. The Associated Press reports over 1,400 have been killed in Gaza since then, with the total Palestinian death toll since October 2023 rising to more than 74,000. Millions of others have been displaced due to the destruction of the landscape.
Macklemore is committed to continuing to raise funds and stand in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza through both speech and performance, even if he doesn’t yet know where those will be allowed to happen. “We’ll keep working with other artists and organizers, continuing where we left off in Europe. We’ll probably just take that shit outside where it belonged in the first place,” he said. “There comes a point when the world changes, not because those in power give us permission, but because the people stop asking for it. We will build our own stages. They may own the arenas. But they do not own the people who fill them. And they never will.”
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