Kraft Barred Macklemore at Gillette. Multiple Venues Rejected the Lineup, and Sheeran’s Team Removed Him

Robert Kraft acknowledged that Gillette Stadium excluded Macklemore from Ed Sheeran’s tour. Messina Touring Group said multiple venues rejected a concert with Macklemore on the lineup and warned that keeping him could result in cancellation of the tour. Ed Sheeran’s team later removed Macklemore from the remaining support dates.

Macklemore was scheduled to perform with Sheeran at Gillette Stadium on September 25 and 26. CBS News reported that his name was later removed from the stadium’s website after Macklemore said Sheeran told him that Kraft would not allow him to perform there.

Kraft said Gillette’s decision was based on Macklemore’s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Sheeran’s New Jersey shows, and what Kraft described as a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery. That is Kraft’s stated rationale, not an independent finding about Macklemore’s broader history. CBS News also reported that the Anti-Defamation League called Macklemore’s comments hateful and accused him of antisemitic rhetoric and behavior.

Messina said on September 14 that venues on upcoming U.S. tour dates would not allow a concert with Macklemore on the lineup. The promoter warned that retaining him would result in cancellation of the tour and affect hundreds of thousands of fans. The warning documents a potential tour-wide consequence, not reported ticket, travel or lodging losses.

Macklemore separately said Kraft had rallied other stadium owners and that they collectively gave Sheeran an ultimatum: keep Macklemore and lose access to their venues. That coordination claim remains Macklemore’s account. Messina’s statement corroborates refusals by multiple venues, but the supplied record does not independently prove that Kraft personally coordinated them or identify every refusing venue.

Kraft said the decision was not intended to diminish Palestinian suffering or deny anyone the right to advocate for Palestinians. CBS News reported that Macklemore had said “Free Palestine” during a New Jersey concert and performed “Hind’s Hall,” a song inspired by pro-Palestinian student protests. The record therefore supports a cultural double-standard argument: Kraft framed the exclusion as opposition to hate speech while his venue excluded an artist whose recent public performance carried Palestinian advocacy.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Sheeran’s team removed Macklemore after the artists had difficult conversations. Sheeran later said, as reported by Middle East Eye, that Macklemore’s removal was the promoter’s decision and not his. Finneas, Aaron Rowe, Beoga and Lukas Graham subsequently announced departures from the tour in solidarity with Macklemore and Palestinians.

The supported finding is not that a government censored Macklemore. It is that privately controlled venues and a promoter shaped access to a major stadium tour, while Kraft’s stated defense of Palestinian advocacy coexisted with Gillette’s exclusion of the performer publicly making that advocacy. That is private cultural gatekeeping, and the record supports calling it a double standard without claiming that Kraft personally coordinated every venue or that the tour suffered documented financial losses.