Macklemore Announces Free Palestine Tour

Macklemore announced Thursday (Sept. 24) that he is launching a Free Palestine trek across Dublin, Paris, and London in late October to raise funds for people suffering in Gaza, following his removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour.

The rapper shared the news on Instagram alongside a poster for the Free Palestine Tour, which is billed for three days under the name “Macklemore and Friends.”

“Because of how quickly all of this has come together, a lot of the conversations, schedules and details are still being worked out,” he wrote in his caption. “But this is a moment of momentum, and there is work to be done.”

Macklemore explained his motivation for organizing the tour. “If these last couple of weeks have shown us anything, it’s that something has shifted over the last three years,” the hip-hop star stated. “There has been a collective awakening around Palestinian liberation, the power of billionaires that try to censor that call, and what we expect from artists right now.”

“It’s 2026,” he continued. “Being apolitical during a genocide doesn’t work anymore. People are asking artists to show up, educate themselves and be in community. To use the stage for more than entertainment. To push back when the call for a Free Palestine is met with attempts to silence it.”

Earlier in the month, the U.S. promoter for Sheeran’s Loop Tour dropped Macklemore as an opener following backlash to his “Free Palestine” demonstrations at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The promoter cited conversations with owners of other stadiums on the route who threatened to cancel dates if Macklemore remained on the bill.

Sheeran stated that he communicated with venue owners, including Robert Kraft of the Kraft Group, which owns Gillette Stadium, to find solutions, but the four-time Grammy winner noted that “the venue’s and promoter’s decision was final.”

Sheeran also explained his past choice not to use his professional platform for politics in order to maintain an apolitical place of safety, sanctuary, and diplomacy.

That explanation drew pushback from fans and activists. At his first Loop show after Macklemore was dropped, where no supporting acts performed due to a solidarity pullout, Sheeran addressed the topic.

“This is a humanitarian issue, and I cannot hide how I feel about it anymore,” Sheeran said on stage at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Sept. 19. “What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on Oct. 7 was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable, and disproportionate.”

Sheeran and Kraft have each pledged $2 million in donations toward the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Macklemore previously donated the $1 million he earned from his Loop Tour contract to Palestinian aid.

“What happened to me is bigger than one artist or one stage,” Macklemore added in his tour announcement. “When the billionaire class can decide which voices are allowed on stage and which ones are too dangerous to hear, everyone should be paying attention … Artists who understand that our platforms mean very little if we’re only willing to use them when it’s safe.”

Tickets for the Free Palestine Tour go on presale at 10 a.m. local time on Monday (Sept. 28) through registration on Macklemore’s website.

See Macklemore’s announcement below.