Country artist breaks Gillette Stadium attendance record while wearing ‘Free Palestine’ shirt

Just weeks after rapper Macklemore was barred from opening for Ed Sheeran at Gillette Stadium after making pro-Palestinian remarks on stage, another musician has broken the venue’s attendance record while wearing a “Free Palestine” shirt.

Zach Bryan, the country folk-rock musician known for hits like I Remember Everything with Kacey Musgraves, attracted a record-breaking 73,538 people on the second night of his With Heaven on Tour. This marked the biggest audience to date at the Massachusetts stadium, which is owned by billionaire Robert Kraft, who led the campaign to have Macklemore dropped from Sheeran’s Loop tour last month.

Throughout the concert, Bryan wore a sleeveless black shirt with the phrases “Free Palestine” and “An appeal to heaven” emblazoned on the front, along with an image of a pine tree. According to the Associated Press, the phrase “An appeal to heaven” dates back to the American Revolutionary War, pointing to the belief that God would deliver the colonists from tyranny.

Some of Bryan’s band members wore clothes displaying similar messaging, according to fan footage.

Gillette stadium announced Bryan’s record via social media on Sunday (AEDT), pairing the news with a series of photos from the show. Bryan’s shirt was not clearly visible in any of the imagery. Macklemore, meanwhile, posted a close-up shot of the country singer inside the stadium on his Instagram story, paired with “Robert Kraft”, a side-eye emoji and the Palestinian flag.

This comes three weeks after Macklemore was dropped from Sheeran’s Loop tour after saying “Free Palestine” on stage at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium in early September. The US musician was set to open for Sheeran at Gillette Stadium on September 25 and 26, but Kraft threatened to pull his venue from the tour if the rapper performed. These Gillette shows were ultimately cancelled due to severe weather warnings in the area.

Following Macklemore’s removal, the Loop tour’s remaining support acts and touring band dropped out in support of the rapper and Palestine. Sheeran has largely performed solo since; however, The Fray’s former frontman Isaac Slade joined him in Atlanta last week, performing an abbreviated set and addressing the war in Gaza.

“Everybody seems to be taking sides in this world and that’s good,” Slade said. “What’s happening over there [in Gaza] is wrong, but if we’re going to get through it, we’re going to need people to step into that middle place, that common ground.”

Violinist Alicia Enstrom and four other musicians also joined Sheeran on stage during a segment of his Philadelphia show on September 19. At that concert, the Shape of You singer publicly addressed the furore, noting that he had tried to avoid being a “political commentator of any kind” throughout his career.

“But this is a humanitarian issue, and I cannot hide how I feel about it any more,” he said at the time. “What happened in Israel and at the Nova Music Festival on October 7th was horrific and compounded centuries of Jewish pain. What is happening in Gaza is catastrophic and unjustifiable, and disproportionate.”

Sheeran has consistently claimed the decision to remove Macklemore was not his, rather it was the tour promoter’s. Additionally, he said he had tried to “build a bridge” with venue owners, but the promoter’s decision was final.

Kraft, meanwhile, has defended his stance. “Gillette Stadium has a longstanding commitment to providing a welcoming environment for all guests and ensuring that events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech,” he said in a statement shortly after Macklemore was dropped.

“Based on Macklemore’s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25th and 26th concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line.”

On September 25, Macklemore announced his own “Free Palestine” concert tour, beginning in Dublin next month. It will then travel to Paris and London, with US dates and additional performers yet to be announced. The first three shows sold out immediately, according to the rapper.

Proceeds will be donated to organisations that support Palestinian people, he said. “Being apolitical during a genocide doesn’t work any more … People are asking artists to show up, educate themselves and be in community. To use the stage for more than entertainment. To push back when the call for a free Palestine is met with attempts to silence it.”

The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from Jason Steger. Get it delivered every Friday.

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.