Macklemore is calling out several U.S. arenas for allegedly refusing to host his Free Palestine Tour.
On Friday (Nov. 6), the Seattle rapper posted a statement on his Instagram account blasting nine different U.S. arenas for allegedly turning down his request to host his Free Palestine Tour. Macklemore launched his three-city trek overseas on Oct. 26 at 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland, to a sold-out crowd. The tour was created to raise funds for organizations that provide medical care, educational support, advocacy, and humanitarian relief to Palestinians.
“A lot of you have been asking about U.S. dates for The Free Palestine benefit tour and I wanted to give you an update,” he wrote in part. “From the beginning, our plan was to bring this tour home to the U.S. But after weeks of reaching out, nine major American arenas have turned us down.”
Macklemore listed the U.S. arenas that he contacted, which were Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, and UBS Arena in New York; Prudential Center in New Jersey; Intuit Dome, Kia Forum, and Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles; Chase Center in San Francisco; and Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
According to the Grammy-winning rhymer, he reached out weeks ago and claims they gave him available dates. “But once they found out these were my benefit shows for Palestine, those dates were suddenly off the table,” he wrote. “The doors were closed. The conversations were all different, but the result was the same. The shows were not going to be allowed to happen in these venues.”
“In over twenty years of touring, I’ve never experienced anything like this,” he added.
Macklemore views this as an act of intimidation and manipulation to silence entertainers. “But at this point, I’m three years past giving two s**ts about maintaining any relationships, business or personal, with anyone that isn’t riding for a Free Palestine,” he wrote.
Despite the setback, Macklemore vows to continue his Free Palestine Tour but in a different iteration.
“The people have spoken. We want an end to the genocide and we want a Free Palestine,” he wrote. “The arenas have made their decision. Now we’ll make ours. If they think the threat of never playing another arena in America will make me retreat into silence, they got me f**ked up.”
“There will be more shows for Palestine. We’ll keep working with other artists and organizers, continuing where we left off in Europe,” he continued. “We’ll probably just take that s**t outside where it belonged in the first place.”
“There comes a point when the world changes, not because those in power give us permission, but because the people stop asking for it. We will build our own stages,” he added.
“They may own the arenas. But they do not own the people who fill them. And they never will,” he concluded.
In response to Macklemore’s claims, an MSG Entertainment spokesperson told Rolling Stone, “We have some of the busiest venues in the world with extremely limited availability, and he’s not an arena-level act.”
XXL has reached out to reps for the other venues for comment. We have not heard back from them.
Check out Macklemore’s message about his Free Palestine Tour coming to the U.S. below.
Read Macklemore’s Statement About U.S. Arenas’ Refusal to Host His Free Palestine Tour
