{"id":908457,"date":"2026-11-06T22:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T22:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/908457\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T22:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T22:42:09","slug":"macklemore-says-u-s-arenas-turned-down-his-free-palestine-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/908457\/","title":{"rendered":"Macklemore Says U.S. Arenas Turned Down His Free Palestine Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMacklemore<\/a> is facing significant hurdles finding venues to house his Free Palestine Tour in the U.S., the rapper said on Friday, stating that major arenas across the country including Madison Square Garden<\/a>, Crypto.com Arena and Kia Forum have all turned him down because of his political message. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn an extensive statement shared to Instagram on Friday, Macklemore said that in September, his team had been given available dates through the end of 2026 but that nine arenas \u2014 Madison Square Garden, Prudential Center, Barclays Center, UBS Arena, Intuit Dome, Kia Forum, Crypto.com Arena, Chase Center, Climate Pledge Arena \u2014 all turned them down \u201conce they found out these were my benefit shows for Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe doors were closed. The conversations were all different, but the result was the same,\u201d Macklemore said. \u201cThe shows were not going to be allowed to happen in these venues. In over twenty years of touring, I\u2019ve never experienced anything like this. But this is not an isolated incident. For decades, activists, poets, writers, musicians and entertainers who have stood in solidarity with the Palestinian people have faced consequences for doing so. Many have paid a far greater price than I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReps for eight of the arenas didn\u2019t immediately respond to request for comment. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement, a representative for Madison Square Garden said that \u201cwe have some of the busiest venues in the world with extremely limited availability and he\u2019s not an arena level act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macklemore\u2019s full statement is available on his Instagram post below.<\/p>\n

\n\tMacklemore\u2019s statement comes a week after he wrapped a sold-out three-date Arena run of his Free Palestine Tour in Dublin, Paris and London<\/a>. The Europe shows featured several celebrity guest performances and appearances from the likes of Hozier, Mark Ruffalo and Susan Sarandon among others. <\/p>\n

\n\tHe announced the tour itself after his removal from Ed Sheeran\u2019s Loop Tour, <\/a>after Robert Kraft and several other NFL owners had told Sheeran they wouldn\u2019t host Sheeran\u2019s shows if Macklemore was on the bill. Sheeran, who has long tried to keep distance from politics with his messages, faced significant backlash<\/a> for bending to the pressure, and Macklemore had said that Sheeran\u2019s \u201ctypical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tKraft himself defended the decision in September saying in a statement, \u201cBased on Macklemore\u2019s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran\u2019s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25th and 26th concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his statement Friday, Macklemore voiced concern about the stifling of freedom of speech, writing that \u201cwe\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI dream of a world where saying Free Palestine is not controversial. It is expected,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere artists value their freedom of speech and collective liberation more than their brand deals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, he further noted that \u201cthe tides are turning,\u201d calling out Abdul El-Sayed\u2019s election victory in Michigan this week despite millions in spending from groups like AIPAC. <\/p>\n

\n\tDespite the challenges in booking at traditional arena venues thus far, Macklemore said he is still exploring options on how to bring the shows stateside, stating that \u201cwe\u2019ll probably just take that shit outside where it belonged in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe will build our own stages,\u201d Macklemore said. \u201cThey may own the arenas. But they do not own the people who fill them. And they never will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Macklemore is facing significant hurdles finding venues to house his Free Palestine Tour in the U.S., the rapper…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,357624,15050,216,379974],"class_list":["post-908457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-macklemore","tag-madison-square-garden","tag-music","tag-pro-palestine-movement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}