Macklemore's Free Palestine tour opens in Dublin with Hozier and Kneecap

Macklemore sold out Dublin's 13,000-capacity 3Arena on October 27, the first European date of his Free Palestine benefit tour — a tour that exists only because Ed Sheeran dropped him from a US stadium run six weeks earlier.

The show featured several unannounced guests, including performances from Hozier and the Belfast rap trio Kneecap, plus video messages from actors Mark Ruffalo and Cynthia Nixon, according to the Guardian's review from the venue.

How did a cancelled support slot become a headlining tour?

The chain of events began at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, where Macklemore made a speech about Palestine on stage during Sheeran's summer US tour. Robert Kraft, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, led efforts to pressure Sheeran into removing Macklemore from the tour, the Guardian reported. Sheeran complied and dropped the rapper.

The move backfired commercially. Macklemore's profile rose dramatically after the removal — a notable shift for an artist whose biggest hits are a decade old, the review notes. Every other artist on Sheeran's tour quit in solidarity. Sheeran's tour continued amid heavy criticism.

Macklemore converted the publicity into a headlining tour of his own, playing noticeably bigger venues than on his last European run. All proceeds go to organisations assisting Palestinians.

What happened on stage at the 3Arena?

The Dublin crowd got surprise appearances the review calls a "triumph." Hozier performed. Kneecap, a band the Guardian notes has "seldom shied away from controversy," delivered one of the evening's sharper lines.

"We'd like to thank Ed Sheeran for organising this concert," a member of Kneecap told the audience.

The Guardian's reviewer describes it as a characteristically two-fisted approach from the group, but one with more than a grain of truth: without Sheeran's decision to drop him, Macklemore would not be headlining arenas on this scale.

Video messages from Mark Ruffalo and Cynthia Nixon also screened during the show, extending the lineup of unannounced contributors.

Is the whole tour selling out?

Every date on the tour is sold out, the Guardian reports, not just the Dublin opener. That marks a sharp commercial reversal for a rapper who, as the review concedes, was "hardly unknown" but whose commercial peak came roughly ten years ago.

The Dublin show now stands as the template for the tour's remaining dates, which combine headline sets, unannounced special guests and celebrity video appearances — all in aid of Palestinian relief organisations, and all in venues larger than any Macklemore headlined on his previous European run.

The tour's continuation will test whether the MetLife Stadium controversy can sustain arena-level demand across a full European run.