“Entertainment venues should be apolitical spaces for everyone to have fun.”

This is the exact fight playing out around the Ed Sheeran/Macklemore tour fallout. After Macklemore said "Free Palestine" and performed "Hind's Hall" at a September 4 tour stop, pressure from stadium owner Robert Kraft got him dropped from the rest of the tour. Sheeran later said he wanted his shows to "remain spaces for unity rather than political debate." Macklemore responded by launching his own "Free Palestine" tour, which sold out immediately.

Ed Sheeran (shows should stay neutral ground): said he wanted his concerts to "remain spaces for unity rather than political debate" rather than a venue for taking sides. A concertgoer, speaking to Fox News (politics at a show alienates people): "The fact that they're forcing Ed Sheeran to have an opinion is not right. He wants to stay in the middle — if you have an opinion, that's fine, but you're going to alienate at least 50% of your population, and it causes unrest." Macklemore (silence protects the powerful, not the audience): "When those in power try to silence our calls for liberation, art will always be a form of resistance." On the broader pattern of stadium owners coordinating to drop him: "When the billionaire class can decide which voices are allowed on stage and which ones are too dangerous to hear, everyone should be paying attention."