Despite everything, Ed Sheeran was supposed to return to Gillette Stadium with a little history waiting for him. His 2023 stop at the Foxborough venue set Gillette’s single-show attendance record, which still stands. Now, the stadium was preparing to welcome him back for his eighth and ninth performances there on September 25 and 26. But the lineup waiting for him in Foxborough had already changed before Sheeran ever stepped onto it.
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The artist who was originally meant to share that stage with him, Macklemore, was no longer part of the plan. His removal from the Loop Tour had put Gillette and Patriots owner Robert Kraft at the center of a dispute over the rapper’s pro-Palestinian remarks, while Sheeran was left to address the fallout himself when the tour reached Philadelphia last weekend. Now, the Gillette dates have changed again.
“Due to the severe weather warnings in place in Boston and across New England throughout the weekend and following consultation with local officials, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the Ed Sheeran concerts at Gillette Stadium,” promoter Messina Touring Group said in a statement. “The decision was made with the safety of fans, staff and everyone involved in the shows as the top priority.”
To put it plainly, Sheeran’s September 25 and 26 concerts at the stadium have been canceled after severe weather warnings prompted the promoter and venue to consult with local officials, with a nor’easter expected to bring heavy rain and strong winds across New England.
The storm was expected to make for a rough weekend across New England. Foxborough was forecast to receive between 1 and 2 inches of rain, with wind gusts around 40 mph, while some parts of the Boston area faced the possibility of gusts reaching 55 mph. With tens of thousands of people expected at the stadium across two nights, the weather posed a safety concern beyond the concerts themselves.
The cancellation also came just one day after Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s office intervened over a separate problem surrounding the shows. More than 170 consumers had contacted the office after struggling to get refunds following changes to the tour lineup. Ticketmaster then agreed to provide advance refunds for the September 25 and 26 dates, with customers asked to submit requests at least 24 hours before showtime. Furthermore, ticket holders who purchased through Ticketmaster will be “automatically refunded.”
That issue was tied to the fallout that began three weeks earlier in New Jersey. On September 4, Macklemore took the stage as Sheeran’s opening act at MetLife Stadium and used part of his set to speak about Palestine before performing “Hind’s Hall.” He told the crowd that he wanted the words “Free Palestine” to reach people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, while also saying that his message was about peace, dignity and equality for all.
The remarks spread beyond the stadium. The Israeli-American Council launched a petition on September 7 calling for Macklemore to be removed from Sheeran’s remaining tour dates, arguing that the concert had become a platform for a political message. Pink also entered the dispute after resharing a post criticizing Macklemore, later explaining that her reaction was tied in part to his past use of an antisemitic costume in 2014 and what she felt was the impact of his latest performance on Jewish members of the audience.
The dispute reached Gillette when venues on the remaining U.S. dates told the tour promoter that they would not host shows with Macklemore still on the bill. Messina Touring Group announced on September 14 that Macklemore would not perform on the remaining support dates, saying keeping him on the lineup could have forced the cancellation of the tour and affected hundreds of thousands of fans.
Macklemore then said Robert Kraft had played a role in that decision, claiming the Patriots owner had told Sheeran that he would not be allowed to perform at Gillette with Macklemore on the bill. Kraft later confirmed that Macklemore would not perform at the stadium, but gave his own explanation for the decision, pointing to the material from the MetLife shows as well as what he described as the rapper’s history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery.
Sheeran pushed back on the idea that he had personally removed his opening act. He said the decision belonged to the promoter, not him, and explained that venues had indicated they would not host the tour if Macklemore remained on the lineup. Sheeran said abandoning the tour would also have meant leaving his crew and other musicians without the work they depended on.
The fallout did not stop with Macklemore. Finneas, Aaron Rowe, Beoga and Lukas Graham all withdrew from their remaining dates in solidarity, leaving Sheeran to continue the tour without the opening lineup that had originally been announced.
The dispute then took another turn on September 16, when Macklemore said he would donate the $1 million he earned from the Loop Tour to six organizations providing aid to Palestinians. He also challenged Kraft to match the donation. Kraft responded that Sheeran had already asked him to commit $2 million toward aid in the region and said he and Sheeran wanted to work with other venue owners to support humanitarian efforts.
By the time Sheeran reached Philadelphia on September 19, the controversy had reshaped the show itself. He removed the smaller B-stage, explaining that he was afraid of what might happen if he went into the middle of the crowd. He also opened the concert by apologizing for the decisions made during the previous week and acknowledging that he had made mistakes.
Sheeran then addressed the issue that had started the chain reaction. He said he was “deeply worried” about venues influencing what performers could say onstage and described the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic and unjustifiable and disproportionate,” while also condemning the October 7 attacks in Israel. It marked a shift from his earlier position that fans did not come to his concerts expecting a political forum.
Just days later, Macklemore announced a new “Free Palestine” tour, with shows planned in Dublin, Paris and London and U.S. dates to follow. He said proceeds would go toward organizations supporting Palestinians, extending the dispute far beyond the remaining dates he had been scheduled to play with Sheeran.
And now, the two Gillette dates that remained after all of that will not happen either. This time, the reason is unrelated to the Macklemore dispute: the nor’easter has taken the concerts off the calendar altogether.