Ed Sheeran's Gillette Stadium Shows Canceled by Storm After Weeks of Macklemore Fallout

Two stadium concerts by Ed Sheeran at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, were canceled this weekend as a nor'easter bore down on New England, closing out one of the most turbulent stretches of any major pop tour this year. The Friday and Saturday shows, part of the North American leg of Sheeran's "Loop" tour, had already been engulfed in controversy for two weeks after the rapper Macklemore was pulled from the bill over pro-Palestinian remarks he made from the stage. The storm ended the run before the dispute could be resolved, but it did not end the story: Macklemore has since announced a separate international run of shows, branded the "Free Palestine Tour," that will send him to Dublin, Paris and London next month.

The promoter, Messina Touring Group, said in a statement reported by outlets including NBC Boston that "severe weather warnings in place in Boston and across New England throughout the weekend" forced the cancellation, consistent with the high wind and coastal flood warnings posted by the National Weather Service's Boston/Norton forecast office, adding that the decision was made "with the safety of fans, staff and everyone involved in the shows as the top priority." Refunds were made available automatically to ticket holders who bought through Ticketmaster.

How the lineup fell apart

The trouble began on Sept. 4, when Macklemore, serving as an opening act on Sheeran's North American stadium run, addressed the crowd at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, saying he wanted to "stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: 'Free Palestine,'" according to remarks carried by Al Jazeera. He also performed material referencing the war in Gaza and displayed imagery from pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots chairman who also controls Gillette Stadium, subsequently moved to keep Macklemore off the Massachusetts dates. In a statement reported by Front Office Sports, Kraft said that "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." Kraft said the decision was "not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf," and added he would welcome a direct conversation with the rapper.

Sheeran, whose contract reportedly left the choice of opening acts to promoters and venues rather than the headliner, said in his own statement that removing Macklemore "was the promoter's decision, it was not mine." He said he had taken part in direct talks between Kraft and tour promoters to seek "a mutual resolution for all," but added that he does not use concerts as "a political forum" and that "there is room for multiple approaches to the same end: peace." Two other supporting acts and members of Sheeran's backing band withdrew from the remaining shows in solidarity with Macklemore.

Refund complaints reach the attorney general

As the lineup shifted, fans who no longer wanted to attend the Gillette Stadium shows ran into resistance when they tried to get their money back. The Massachusetts attorney general's office said it heard from nearly 200 consumers who were struggling to secure refunds from Ticketmaster, and it sent the company a demand letter arguing that "changing nearly all of the acts and performers at the same time constitutes such a dramatic change in the service that Ticketmaster's reliance on the purchase policy appears unfair," according to comments from Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office carried by CBS News Boston. Ticketmaster agreed to process refunds for the Gillette shows, provided requests were submitted at least 24 hours before each concert's 8 p.m. start time.

That concession became moot once the shows were scrapped outright for weather, but the episode left one of the tour's marquee American stops shadowed by both a political dispute and a consumer-protection inquiry, an unusual double setback for a stadium run built around one of pop music's most reliably crowd-pleasing headliners. The North American leg is now set to close in Tampa, Florida, on Nov. 7, without a Massachusetts date on the books.

A tour built from the fallout

Rather than stay quiet, Macklemore turned the removal into the foundation of a new project. On Sept. 24 he announced the "Free Palestine Tour," with dates set for Dublin's 3Arena on Oct. 26, the Accor Arena in Paris on Oct. 29 and Wembley Arena in London on Oct. 30, according to Billboard. Presale registration opens Monday, with general tickets going on sale Sept. 30, and organizers say additional dates, including U.S. shows and guest performers, are still being arranged. Proceeds will be split among twelve humanitarian organizations that work in Gaza and the wider Palestinian territories, including Anera, the Palestine Children's Relief Fund and UNRWA USA, NBC News reported.

Announcing the tour, Macklemore framed the past weeks as evidence of a broader shift in how audiences expect musicians to engage with world events.

"It's 2026. Being apolitical during a genocide doesn't work anymore. People are asking artists to show up, educate themselves and be in community."

What comes next

Neither Sheeran's team nor Messina Touring Group has said whether the Gillette Stadium dates will be rescheduled, and there has been no indication that a make-up show would escape the same restrictions Kraft imposed the first time. For touring promoters and venue operators, the episode adds to a growing list of disputes over how far artists can go in using amplified stadium platforms to address the war in Gaza, a question that has already reshaped festival lineups and sponsorship deals elsewhere in live music this year. For Macklemore, the immediate next step is a much smaller, arena-scale run overseas, financed in part by the attention his removal generated, with U.S. dates and additional performers expected to be named in the coming weeks.