Macklemore says that nine US arenas turned down his Free Palestine tour

Rapper called out ‘intimidation, manipulation and suppression’ in a social media post, claiming major arenas refused to host him after the Ed Sheeran controversy

Macklemore says that nine major US arenas have refused to host his Free Palestine fundraising tour, calling out “intimidation, manipulation and suppression” tactics.

In an Instagram post, the rapper says that he hoped to bring the tour to the US, but nine major arenas refused to host the event, including New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Los Angeles’s Crypto.com arena and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

Last month, Macklemore brought the Free Palestine tour to Dublin, London and Paris in a show praised by the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis as “a triumph”.