Ed Sheeran's Gillette Stadium concerts called off as troubled tour faces fresh setback

Read the original at Fox News ↗
Fox News · collected 2026-09-25 · by Emily Trainham

Quick Summary

Ed Sheeran's concerts at Gillette Stadium scheduled for September 25 and 26 have been canceled due to severe weather warnings affecting Boston and New England. The tour promoter, Messina Touring Group, announced that safety concerns were the primary reason for the cancellations, with refunds available at the point of purchase. Additionally, the article mentions a controversy involving Robert Kraft, owner of Gillette Stadium, who decided not to allow Sheeran's former opener Macklemore to perform due to his support for Palestinians and perceived antisemitic rhetoric.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-02, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Ed Sheeran canceled concerts scheduled for this Friday and Saturday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, due to an approaching nor'easter. The severe weather warnings prompted the decision, prioritizing fan safety. Refunds are being processed automatically through Ticketmaster.

The cancellations follow weeks of controversy after Macklemore was dropped from Sheeran's tour for voicing support for Palestinians during a New Jersey show. Robert Kraft, Gillette Stadium’s billionaire owner and staunch supporter of Israel, reportedly pressured Sheeran to remove Macklemore, leading to further complications in the tour.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell has intervened due to nearly 200 people struggling to obtain refunds from Ticketmaster over issues unrelated to the weather. The controversy has overshadowed the concert cancellations but hasn't affected the decision based on safety concerns.

Written for “Ed Sheeran Concert Cancellations Weather” on 2026-10-05, grounded in this article and the 9 other(s) covering the same event.

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
19
claim-shaped sentences
Uncertain
11%
2 of 19 hedged
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Correction & hedging signals
68.6
corrections and hedging in what we collected; not a measure of accuracy
Outlets on this story
10
Entertainment
Narrative spread
1
articles carrying this framing
Analyzed 2026-09-27 · how these are computed

Story

📰 Ed Sheeran Concert Cancellations Weather
Entertainment · 10 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 11% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
NBC News · 0.96 cosine similarity
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 17 📰 publisher trust 95
“Both articles describe the cancellation of Ed Sheeran’s concerts at Gillette Stadium on September 25 and 26, 2026, due to severe weather warnings.”
Global News · 0.95 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 18 📰 publisher trust 64
“Both articles report on the cancellation of Ed Sheeran's concerts at Gillette Stadium due to severe weather warnings, occurring on the same dates with identical context and outcome.”
The Guardian · 0.94 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 23 📰 publisher trust 68
“Both articles report on the cancellation of Ed Sheeran's concerts at Gillette Stadium due to severe weather conditions on the same date.”
New York Post · 0.92 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 7% hedged 1 of 14 📰 publisher trust 64
“Both articles report on Ed Sheeran's canceled concerts at Gillette Stadium due to severe weather conditions.”
CBC News · 0.91 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 3% hedged 1 of 31 📰 publisher trust 77
“Both articles report the cancellation of Ed Sheeran's concerts at Gillette Stadium due to severe weather warnings on the same dates and in the same location.”
The Sydney Morning Herald · 0.88 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 3% hedged 1 of 35 📰 publisher trust 61
“Both articles describe the cancellation of Ed Sheeran's concerts at Gillette Stadium due to severe weather warnings on the same dates.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 14% hedged 3 of 22 📰 publisher trust 67
“Both articles report on Ed Sheeran canceling concerts at Gillette Stadium due to severe weather conditions on the same dates.”
Toronto Star
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 2 📰 publisher trust 63
“Both articles describe Ed Sheeran canceling concerts at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts on September 25 and 26 due to severe weather conditions.”
Al Jazeera · 0.88 cosine similarity
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 16 📰 publisher trust 60
“Both articles describe the cancellation of Ed Sheeran's concerts at Gillette Stadium due to severe weather conditions on the same dates.”
Daily Mail
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 66 📰 publisher trust 65
“Article A discusses Ed Sheeran facing backlash and family/friend issues due to his involvement with Macklemore's removal from his tour, while Article B reports on the cancellation of specific concerts at Gillette Stadium due to weather conditions.”

Publisher

Fox News · 2802 article(s) · 4 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 4 correction(s)
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2026-09-23
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Who wrote this

Emily Trainham
4 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Sheeran was set to perform at the Foxborough, Mass., venue on Sept. 25 and 26, but according to a statement shared on social media, potentially dangerous weather conditions have forced the singer to step back.
🔮 He wrote that for the past week, he's been in touch with artists who have also been vocal about their support for Palestinians, "regardless of the consequences" — artists who he says "understand that our platforms mean very little if we’re only willing to use them when it’s safe."
🔮 The outlet also reported that Thompson was seen at a bar in town around 2 p.m. on Friday, hours before his show was set to begin at 8 p.m.
🔮 "This past week in the Hamptons, a woman complimented my arms and said, 'Gosh, I could probably never have arms like yours,'" Decker wrote.
Also by Emily Trainham
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

Topics

Hamas Jewish Kraft Palestinians Sheeran

Subjects

Sheeran ORG · 8× Macklemore PERSON · 7× Kraft PERSON · 5× Hamas ORG · 3× Palestinians NORP · 3× Jewish NORP · 2× Boston GPE · 1× Ed Sheeran's PERSON · 1× Foxborough GPE · 1× Mass. GPE · 1×

Narrative

After Macklemore used his slot at Sheeran's MetLife Stadium shows to express his support for Palestinians, many people were upset, including owners of stadiums where Sheeran's show was slated to play. The "Thrift Shop" rapper was eventually dropped from the tour, and in a lengthy statement reacting to the news, he wrote in part, "Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues."
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-27
🔮 Sheeran was set to perform at the Foxborough, Mass., venue on Sept. 25 and 26, but according to a statement shared on social media, potentially dangerous weather conditions have forced the singer to step back.

Claims (19 extracted, 2 hedged)

Ed Sheeran's concerts at Gillette Stadium have been canceled. asserted
concerts → cancel → Stadium
Sheeran was set to perform at the Foxborough, Mass., venue on Sept. 25 and 26, but according to a statement shared on social media, potentially dangerous weather conditions have forced the singer to step back. uncertain
conditions → set → singer
"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," Sheeran's tour promoter, Messina Touring Group, said in a statement. asserted
promoter → follow → statement
"The decision was made with the safety of fans, staff and everyone involved in the shows as the top priority." asserted
decision → make → priority
The company noted that refunds are available at the point of purchase. asserted
refunds → note → purchase
Gillette Stadium reposted the statement. asserted
Stadium → reposte → statement
While the weather prompted the cancellations, the owner of Gillette Stadium, Robert Kraft, has been in the headlines recently due to the controversy surrounding Sheeran and one of the former openers for his tour, Macklemore. asserted
owner → prompt → tour
After Macklemore used his slot at Sheeran's MetLife Stadium shows to express his support for Palestinians, many people were upset, including owners of stadiums where Sheeran's show was slated to play. The "Thrift Shop" rapper was eventually dropped from the tour, and in a lengthy statement reacting to the news, he wrote in part, "Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues." asserted
you → use → venues
Kraft then issued a statement of his own, that read, "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." asserted
events → issue → speech
"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." asserted
participation → base → line
The statement continued, "This decision is not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf. asserted
decision → continue → behalf
But that advocacy should not come at the expense of the Jewish community or obscure the responsibility of Hamas, a United States and globally (including Canada, European Union, United Kingdom, and Japan) designated terrorist organization whose horrific actions have caused immeasurable suffering for Palestinians and Israelis alike." asserted
actions → come → Palestinians
Kraft wrote that he agreed with Macklemore that "too many lives have been lost and there has been too much suffering," but argued that "only sharing selective information and ignoring the actions of Hamas is not honest and only advances more divisiveness and hate." asserted
sharing → write → divisiveness
He added, "Standing with the Palestinian people and standing against Hamas, antisemitism and hate should not be mutually exclusive." asserted
antisemitism → add → Hamas
Kraft shared that he's spent a considerable amount of time in recent years "focused on the fight against antisemitism and hate of all kinds, and I feel a responsibility to stand up when I believe that line has been crossed." asserted
line → share → responsibility
He has a "tremendous respect" for Sheeran and his music, Kraft explained, and he said that he'd also be happy to speak personally with Macklemore, "because ultimately our goal is the same – peace for all people, an end to suffering, and an end to all hate." WATCH: asserted
goal → have → hate
While it's not clear if Macklemore has pursued that opportunity, he did announce this week that in October, he's headed to Europe for a set of shows he's calling the "Free Palestine Tour." asserted
he → pursue → shows
Despite the promoter saying severe weather forced the cancellation of Sheeran's Gillette Stadium shows, several people shared other theories on social media. "Mother Nature really said ‘not in Kraft’s house,'" one person wrote. asserted
person → say → house
Another joked, "The bad weather being refunds and public backlash." It's unclear if the shows will be rescheduled. uncertain
shows → joke → ?
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