{"id":289497,"date":"2026-09-19T07:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T07:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/289497\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T07:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T07:34:08","slug":"ed-sheeran-set-to-return-to-stage-in-philadelphia-for-1st-time-since-macklemore-was-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/289497\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed Sheeran set to return to stage in Philadelphia for 1st time since Macklemore was cut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed Sheeran is set to resume his tour Saturday \u2014 possibly solo \u2014 after all his supporting acts withdrew in solidarity with opener Macklemore,<\/a> who was dropped after making pro-Palestinian comments onstage.<\/a><\/p>\n

It remains to be seen how Sheeran will handle the performance at Philadelphia\u2019s Lincoln Financial Field given the departure of his opening acts and supporting band. <\/p>\n

Sheeran has performed much of his Loop Tour concerts solo, but he had been joined for several songs at each stop by the Irish folk band Beoga. <\/p>\n

Ed Sheeran and Macklemore perform onstage during the 2014 iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, on Sept. 20, 2014. Kevin Winter<\/p>\n

Macklemore, Sheeran\u2019s original US opener,<\/a> had been replaced by Danish band Lukas Graham and Irish singer Aaron Rowe before they backed out.<\/p>\n

Finneas, Billie Eilish\u2019s brother and musical collaborator, was due to tour with Sheeran in South America later this year before he too dropped out earlier this week.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sheeran has not said anything publicly since losing the artists\u2019 support. <\/p>\n

As of Friday, tickets were still available for Saturday\u2019s show, and his website did not list any replacement acts. <\/p>\n

A coalition of pro-Palestinian organizations plans to protest outside the show<\/a> Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The show comes after a tumultuous week that opened with Macklemore being dropped in response to exclaiming \u201cFree Palestine\u201d <\/a>during a Sept. 5 show in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Sheeran is set to perform at Philadelphia\u2019s Lincoln Financial Field on Sept. 19, in his first show since Macklemore was dropped and the remaining openers removed themselves from the tour. AP Photo\/Amy Harris<\/p>\n

Macklemore was dropped by the tour in response to exclaiming \u201cFree Palestine\u201d during a Sept. 5 show at MetLife Stadium. @itssavsdiary via Storyful<\/p>\n

Sheeran has said he was not responsible for the decision,<\/a> which came at the urging of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.<\/a><\/p>\n

His company owns a stadium where Sheeran\u2019s tour was scheduled to play on Friday.<\/p>\n

Within hours of Sheeran\u2019s statement Tuesday, his supporting acts withdrew.<\/p>\n

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Macklemore said Wednesday he is donating $1 million to support Palestinian relief efforts and called on Kraft to match the gift; a spokesperson for Kraft has said the billionaire and Sheeran have each agreed to donate $2 million but have not specified where the money will be directed. <\/p>\n

Sheeran\u2019s representatives have not responded to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Sheeran\u2019s Loop Tour <\/a>was the highest-grossing in the world, with an average box office gross of over $7 million per city, Pollstar said in May.<\/p>\n

Pro-Palestinian imagery was displayed on a screen behind Macklemore during his set at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 5, 2026.<\/p>\n

Sheeran has said he was not responsible for the decision to drop Macklemore from the tour, which came at the urging of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Alec Gearty<\/p>\n

Through the end of 2025, Sheeran was the No. 3 top-earning concert act since 2021.<\/p>\n

Sheeran has said the tour promoter was ultimately responsible for the decision to drop Macklemore.<\/p>\n

The Grammy winner was adamant in his Tuesday statement that he wouldn\u2019t be drawn into discussion of the war in Gaza, arguing that his fans don\u2019t come to his shows to hear about these issues.<\/p>\n

He also said he \u201cspoke with the venues at length all week to try to build a bridge\u201d before Macklemore was dropped.<\/p>\n

He insisted he would never willingly let down his fans or abandon the touring crew and others who rely on him to make a living.<\/p>\n

While promoters and venues wield great power over concert tours, experts say an artist of Sheeran\u2019s magnitude generally has the final say about what happens concerning the shows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ed Sheeran is set to resume his tour Saturday \u2014 possibly solo \u2014 after all his supporting acts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7019,119892,5061,441,119893,3766,69,71,70,35867,302],"class_list":["post-289497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-concert","tag-ed-sheeran","tag-israel","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-macklemore","tag-palestine","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-robert-kraft","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}