A nor'easter just cancelled Ed Sheeran's two Gillette Stadium shows this weekend, which is genuinely the least dramatic thing to happen to this tour in the past three weeks. The weather closed in on Boston and across New England with wind gusts expected to hit 60 mph on Saturday, and Sheeran's touring group pulled the plug. But the storm you need to be paying attention to has nothing to do with barometric pressure.
The Weather Cancellation, Briefly, Because It's the Boring Part
Sheeran's Friday and Saturday concerts at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, near Boston, are gone. His touring group, Messina Touring, confirmed the cancellations Thursday citing severe weather warnings across New England throughout the weekend. According to NBC News, the incoming nor'easter is expected to affect states from Virginia to Rhode Island, with coastal flood alerts in effect for 33 million people and gusts peaking near 60 mph in coastal locations. Local officials told drivers to minimize travel.
The venue confirmed the decision in a statement, saying it was made "with the safety of fans, staff and everyone involved in the shows as the top priority." Refunds are available at the point of purchase, and anyone who bought through Ticketmaster gets automatically refunded. That's the weather story. Clean, simple, nobody's fault.
Now let's talk about the actual story.
How Ed Sheeran's Tour Became a Free Speech Bonfire
Earlier this month, rapper Macklemore was removed from Sheeran's "Loop" tour after making pro-Palestinian comments from the stage at shows in New Jersey. According to NBC News, those comments included calling for "free Palestine," referencing "genocide" in Gaza, and displaying images from Gaza during his set. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who is Jewish and owns Gillette Stadium, accused Macklemore of hate speech and said the rapper would not be permitted to perform at his venue.
Macklemore alleged, per NBC News, that Kraft didn't stop there and organized a broader boycott among stadium owners across the tour. Kraft denied intending to stifle Palestinian support, saying in a previous statement he simply wanted to maintain a "welcoming environment" at Gillette Stadium. Sure. Very welcoming. For everyone except the guy who said things you disagreed with.
Sheeran's team said the decision came from his promoter, not from Sheeran himself. The promoter's position, as BBC News reported, was that venue owners including Kraft would have refused to host the shows at all if Macklemore remained on the bill. So: a billionaire NFL owner effectively vetoed who could appear on a pop star's tour, and the promoter went along with it.
The Domino Effect Nobody Saw Coming (Except Everyone)
Once Macklemore was out, the rest of Sheeran's support acts looked at the situation and decided they wanted no part of it. Aaron Rowe, Lukas Graham, Finneas, and Sheeran's house band Beoga all withdrew from the tour in protest, according to NBC News. That is essentially the entire supporting cast of a major arena tour walking off the job simultaneously over a matter of principle.
That does not happen. Artists drop off tours for scheduling conflicts, creative differences, money disputes. They do not typically stage a collective walkout because a billionaire stadium owner bullied a rapper off the bill for saying "free Palestine." The fact that it happened here tells you something about how the people closest to this situation read what went on.
Sheeran, for his part, returned to the stage last weekend and did not exactly project confidence. "I've never wanted to be an activist musician," he told the crowd, per NBC News, "but this has put me in the middle of an important and passionate argument about freedom of speech and the most complex political issue on the planet." He also told fans, as BBC News reported, that he "had to take and make difficult decisions — and I am making mistakes — and I'm so, so sorry."
Kraft's $2 Million Fig Leaf
BBC News reported earlier this week that Kraft said Sheeran personally asked him to donate $2 million in humanitarian aid following the Macklemore backlash. That is a remarkable detail. The sequence being: Kraft pressures the tour to remove a rapper for saying "genocide," the move generates enormous negative press, and then the pop star apparently asks the billionaire responsible to write a large check toward Gaza relief as some kind of reputational circuit-breaker.
Kraft did not dispute the account. Whether the $2 million has actually materialized is a separate question entirely.
Macklemore, Meanwhile, Is Not Sitting Still
On Thursday, the same day the Gillette cancellations were announced, Macklemore announced his own Free Palestine Tour for this fall, per NBC News. So the rapper who got booted from a stadium tour for his political views is now headlining his own tour built entirely around those views.
That is either a poetic outcome or an obvious one, depending on how cynical you are about the music industry. Either way, getting kicked off Ed Sheeran's arena tour apparently did not hurt Macklemore's ability to book shows. It may have done the opposite.
The Dingo Take
A nor'easter cancelling two concerts is a footnote. The actual story here is that a billionaire NFL owner leveraged his control of a venue to dictate the political speech of a touring musician's opening act, the promoter rolled over immediately, and the whole machine went along with it until enough people made enough noise that everyone involved started issuing apologies and floating charitable donations to make the story go away. That is not how free speech is supposed to work, even in the purely private, no-First-Amendment-applies sense. It's how power works when nobody pushes back fast enough.
Sheeran saying he "made mistakes" and is "so, so sorry" is the sound of a man who got caught in the middle and handled it badly, and at least knows it. That's something. But the person who actually made the call that started all of this, Robert Kraft, has faced no meaningful consequences. He owns the stadium. He called his billionaire friends. He got what he wanted. Then he gave a statement about "welcoming environments." The rapper is out here announcing a Free Palestine Tour. The pop star is apologizing to fans. And Kraft is sitting in his owner's box, untouched.
The nor'easter will pass by Sunday. The questions about who actually gets to control what artists say on stage, and whose money makes that decision, are going to take considerably longer to blow through.
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