- 3 shows so far
- 12 charities
- 26 Oct first show
- 28 Sep presale opens
Macklemore is turning his exit from Ed Sheeran’s tour into a tour of his own. FREE PALESTINE is a series of concerts that brings the Seattle rapper together with other artists for shows centred on Palestine and Palestinians. Every cent of the proceeds goes to organisations working with Palestinian people.
Announcing it on Instagram, he said, “Being apolitical during a genocide doesn’t work anymore.”
Tour dates
| Date | City | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 26 October | Dublin | 3Arena |
| Thursday 29 October | Paris | Accor Arena |
| Friday 30 October | London | OVO Arena Wembley |
The artist presale runs from Monday, 28 September (10am local time) to Wednesday, 30 September (9am local time). Sign up for early access at Macklemore.com. General sale details haven’t been announced yet.
The bill simply reads “Macklemore and Friends” for now. He says a lot of the schedules and details are still being worked out, and that more cities and dates, including in the United States, will follow in the coming weeks.
Where the money goes
All proceeds go to 12 organisations covering medical care, humanitarian aid, education, community support, advocacy, organising and media work:
- Anera
- Glia
- Gaza Soup Kitchen
- Taawon
- HEAL Palestine
- Palestinian Youth Movement
- Middle East Children’s Alliance
- Jewish Voice for Peace
- Medical Aid for Palestinians
- Institute for Middle East Understanding
- Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
- UNRWA USA
How we got here
Macklemore joined Ed Sheeran’s US Loop Tour as an opener this month. At MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on 4 and 5 September, he said “Free Palestine” from the stage and performed Hind’s Hall, his 2024 protest song. At the second show, he told Jewish audience members that criticising Israel “in no way is a criticism of you”.
On 14 September, tour promoter Messina Touring Group said venues on the remaining US dates wouldn’t allow shows with Macklemore on the bill, and he was removed. Macklemore says Sheeran told him that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft had barred him from Gillette Stadium and rallied other stadium owners. Kraft confirmed he blocked the Gillette shows, citing what he called a history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery. Macklemore rejects that, describing his message as one of peace and equal dignity for everyone.
Sheeran said the decision was the promoter’s, not his. The rest of his support line-up, FINNEAS, Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe, plus his backing band Beoga, pulled out of the remaining dates in solidarity. Sheeran and Kraft have each pledged $2 million to humanitarian aid in the region, and Macklemore says he’s giving his entire $1 million in net earnings from the tour to organisations supporting Palestinians.
Is he coming to Australia?
Not yet. The first shows are all in Europe, and the US is next. If Australian dates are announced, we’ll update this piece.
Let’s talk about Ed
This whole mess has been a masterclass in how loudly money talks. Ed says the call to drop Macklemore came from his promoter, not him. Maybe so. But he kept on playing the stadiums that wouldn’t have Macklemore, and when he decided to do some good, he picked up the phone to Robert Kraft, the billionaire whose stadium banned his mate in the first place.
I get that he wants to look impartial. You can’t be impartial about genocide, though. Fence-sitting on genocide tells everyone exactly what you value, and here, that’s the money.
Are we surprised? Honestly, no. Money has always had a seat at the table. What’s unusual is seeing it this loud, with the receipts right out in the open: a billionaire decides who gets a microphone, and everyone with a stake in the tour falls in line.
Side Quest Why Is It Called “Hind’s Hall”?
Macklemore’s 2024 protest song takes its name from Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza in January 2024. Months later, student protesters at Columbia University occupied Hamilton Hall and renamed it Hind’s Hall in her honour, and the song followed.
Then came Philadelphia, where Ed broke down in tears on stage. Shed Tearan, if you will. (I’m not sorry.) But listen to what actually set him off: feeling his friends and family abandon him, wondering whether he even wanted to be an artist any more, and how grateful he was that 50,000 people hadn’t walked out. The tears were for his week. Gaza got a line in a written statement about suffering “on both sides”.
My read? He’s scared of losing his lifestyle, not his fans. If he trusted his fans, he’d know plenty of them would have stood right behind him. His own support acts did. FINNEAS, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Beoga all walked away from the remaining dates, and Beoga said playing venues that silence anyone advocating for a free Palestine simply wasn’t an option. As Lukas Graham put it, “Nobody’s bank balance should decide who gets to speak.”
Ed sided with the billionaires instead. And that says a lot.
Where we stand
This part is us, not the news. What’s happening in Gaza is a genocide.
We don’t say that lightly, and we’re far from alone. In September 2025, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry, chaired by Navi Pillay (a former UN human rights chief who presided over the international tribunal for the genocide in Rwanda), found that Israel has committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention, with the intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. A month earlier, the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a resolution saying Israel’s actions meet the legal definition of genocide. Amnesty International had already reached the same conclusion.
Israel rejects those findings, and so does the United States. We’ve looked at the evidence, and we don’t.
We want peace. The killing has to stop for good, and Palestinians deserve to live freely and safely on their own land. Every life lost in this is a person someone loved, Palestinian and Israeli alike.
Free Palestine.
Stay unruly.
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