By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Macklemore says nine US arenas turned down his Palestine benefit tour after learning its purpose, following sold-out shows across Europe.

Key Developments

• Macklemore said US arenas offered available dates before learning the concerts would benefit Palestinians, then took those dates off the table.
• Madison Square Garden’s operator cited limited availability and disputed the rapper’s ability to draw an arena audience.
• The US booking dispute follows three sold-out benefit concerts in Europe after Macklemore was dropped from Ed Sheeran’s tour.

Macklemore said nine major US arenas turned down his Free Palestine benefit tour, and that dates his team had been offered disappeared once venues learned the shows would raise money for organizations providing aid to Palestinians.

“In over twenty years of touring, I’ve never experienced anything like this,” the rapper wrote on Instagram.

He said his team had received available dates by mid-September for shows through the end of the year. “The conversations were all different, but the result was the same,” he said.

He identified the venues as Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, Barclays Center in Brooklyn, UBS Arena in Elmont, Prudential Center in Newark, Intuit Dome and Kia Forum in Inglewood, Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Chase Center in San Francisco, and Climate Pledge Arena in his hometown of Seattle.

Madison Square Responds

MSG Entertainment, which operates Madison Square Garden, told Rolling Stone its venues had “extremely limited availability” and said Macklemore was “not an arena-level act.”

Its response did not address his account that dates were withdrawn after the purpose of the shows became known.

Representatives for the other eight venues did not immediately respond to the magazine’s requests for comment.

Sold Out Abroad

The US booking dispute followed sold-out October shows at Dublin’s 3Arena, Paris’s Accor Arena and OVO Arena Wembley in London, Rolling Stone reported.

The concerts raised money for organizations providing aid to Palestinians.

Macklemore launched the tour after being dropped from Ed Sheeran’s tour in September.

Rolling Stone reported that stadium owners had pushed for his removal over his public support for Palestinians in Gaza.

In his Instagram statement, Macklemore said the prospect of losing access to US arenas would not silence him. “We want an end to the genocide and we want a Free Palestine,” he wrote.

 

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(PC, Rolling Stone, Instagram)