{"id":627804,"date":"2026-09-26T05:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/627804\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T05:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T05:12:14","slug":"ed-sheeran-gigs-at-massachusetts-stadium-owned-by-macklemore-critic-cancelled-over-weather-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/627804\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Sheeran gigs at Massachusetts stadium owned by Macklemore critic cancelled over weather \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed Sheeran<\/a>\u2019s two gigs at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, have been cancelled due to \u201csevere weather warnings\u201d.<\/p>\n

The concerts at the stadium owned by the NFL\u2019s New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft were at the centre of controversy surrounding the singer and Macklemore<\/a>, the US<\/a> rapper originally slated to support him.<\/p>\n

The touring company behind Sheeran\u2019s tour, which has since seen all of its support acts withdraw after Macklemore\u2019s removal due to his position on Gaza<\/a>, said the decision had been made about Friday and Saturday\u2019s shows due to the potential impact on the safety of fans and staff.<\/p>\n

A statement from Messina Touring, which is organising Sheeran\u2019s Loop Tour, read: \u201cDue 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision was made with the safety of fans, staff and everyone involved in the shows as the top priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cRefunds are available now at the point of purchase.<\/p>\n

\u201cTicket holders who purchased through Ticketmaster<\/a> will be automatically refunded.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Macklemore to bring Free Palestine tour to Dublin after removal from Ed Sheeran\u2019s tourOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Robert Kraft, whose Kraft Group owns the Gillette Stadium, was among the people who contacted Sheeran and told him concerts could not go ahead unless Macklemore was removed from the tour.<\/p>\n

It comes after Sheeran played his first gig since the row last Saturday, with a new backing band and his b-stage removed. He said he had questioned whether he \u201cwanted to be an artist at all\u201d after the furore.<\/p>\n

Speaking in clips from the gig shared on social media, he said: \u201cI didn\u2019t know if I would have things thrown at me, I didn\u2019t know if people would be angry with me.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo today I apologise that today is not the usual Loop show, I took the b-stage out because I was afraid of what might happen if I stood in the middle, and I will admit that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The English singer said he had tried in the past not to be a \u201cpolitical commentator\u201d because he wanted his shows to be about \u201cunity\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot hide how I feel about it any more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened in Israel<\/a> and at the Nova music festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate. My heart has been broken by the scale of devastation and loss of civilians\u2019 lives, children\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the systemic injustice we are seeing unfold in the West Bank<\/a> cannot be overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ed Sheeran controversy: How his North American tour has ended up in crisisOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He also said he was \u201cdeeply worried\u201d about the idea that venues should \u201cpreapprove\u201d content, adding: \u201cThis happens in so many places that I perform around the world, but it should never happen in the free world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irish singer Aaron Rowe, Grammy award-winning musician Finneas, who is Billie Eilish\u2019s brother, and Danish singer Lukas Graham, as well as Sheeran\u2019s backing band Beoga all dropped out of the remaining dates following the rapper\u2019s removal.<\/p>\n

Macklemore\u2019s departure from the Loop Tour came after he said he wanted people in Gaza and the West Bank to know they had not been forgotten during a show at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Macklemore, whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty, announced a European tour named Free Palestine, which will see him perform shows in London, Paris and Dublin.<\/p>\n

Announcing the tour, the Thrift Shop rapper said: \u201cIf these last couple of weeks have shown us anything, it\u2019s that something has shifted over the last three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, the power of billionaires that try to censor that call, and what we expect from artists right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 2026. Being apolitical during a genocide doesn\u2019t work any more. People are asking artists to show up, educate themselves and be in community.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo use the stage for more than entertainment. To push back when the call for a free Palestine is met with attempts to silence it.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the proceeds from the concerts will go towards a number of organisations working in support of Palestinian people including medical care, humanitarian assistance, education, community support and advocacy. \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed Sheeran\u2019s two gigs at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, have been cancelled due to \u201csevere weather…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4249,146,69,85,46,33778,409,113094,1032,77],"class_list":["post-627804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ed-sheeran","tag-entertainment","tag-gaza-strip","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-hamas-conflict","tag-music","tag-ticketmaster","tag-united-states","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}