Macklemore Says Madison Square Garden, Kia Forum Among Arenas That Declined to Host His Free Palestine Tour

Macklemore 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, Crypto.com Arena and Kia Forum have all turned him down because of his political message.

In 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 — Madison Square Garden, Prudential Center, Barclays Center, UBS Arena, Intuit Dome, Kia Forum, Crypto.com Arena, Chase Center, Climate Pledge Arena — all turned them down “once they found out these were my benefit shows for Palestine.”

“The doors were closed. The conversations were all different, but the result was the same,” Macklemore said. “The shows were not going to be allowed to happen in these venues. In over twenty years of touring, I’ve 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.”

Reps for the arenas didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

Macklemore’s full statement is available on his Instagram post below.

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

He announced the tour itself after his removal from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour, after Robert Kraft and several other NFL owners had told Sheeran they wouldn’t host Sheeran’s shows if Macklemore was on the bill. Sheeran, who has long tried to keep distance from politics with his messages, faced significant backlash for bending to the pressure, and Macklemore had said that Sheeran’s “typical apolitical stance was being challenged in a way it never had been before.”

Kraft himself defended the decision in September saying in a statement, “Based on Macklemore’s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s 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.”

In his statement Friday, Macklemore voiced concern about the stifling of freedom of speech, writing that “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.”

“I dream of a world where saying Free Palestine is not controversial. It is expected,” he said. “Where artists value their freedom of speech and collective liberation more than their brand deals.”

Still, he further noted that “the tides are turning,” calling out Abdul El-Sayed’s election victory in Michigan this week despite millions in spending from groups like AIPAC.

Despite 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 “we’ll probably just take that shit outside where it belonged in the first place.”

“We will build our own stages,” Macklemore said. “They may own the arenas. But they do not own the people who fill them. And they never will.”