Macklemore accused nine U.S. arenas on Nov. 6, 2026, of turning down his “Free Palestine” benefit shows after learning their purpose. William Earl of Variety reported the rapper’s allegation, which Macklemore made in an Instagram statement about his efforts to bring the tour to the United States.
“By mid-September, we received available dates at these arenas through the end of the year,” Macklemore wrote, in the statement quoted by Variety. “But once they found out these were my benefit shows for Palestine, those dates were suddenly off the table.”
The venues he named were Madison Square Garden, Prudential Center, Barclays Center, UBS Arena, Intuit Dome, Kia Forum, Crypto.com Arena, Chase Center and Climate Pledge Arena, Ethan Millman of The Hollywood Reporter reported.
“The doors were closed. The conversations were all different, but the result was the same,” Macklemore wrote, according to Variety. “The shows were not going to be allowed to happen in these venues.”
TheWrap and The Hollywood Reporter both reported that representatives for the arenas had not responded to their requests for comment at publication. The allegation about why the dates became unavailable remains Macklemore’s account of those conversations.
