Ed Sheeran Faces a Solo Night at the Linc

Ed Sheeran is due on stage at 8 p.m. on September 19 at Lincoln Financial Field with no announced openers and no touring band. The Philadelphia Loop Tour date is still on the books after Macklemore was pulled from the run and the rest of the support bill walked off.

The night now looks like the show he has sold for years: one man, a guitar, and a loop pedal in a football stadium.

The Loop Tour Was Built for One Person

The Loop Tour takes its name from the machine at Sheeran’s feet. He records a guitar hit, a slap on the body, a vocal line, then plays over those layers while they repeat. The method started on street corners with a Boss looper and followed him into stadiums, including custom boards later sold with Headrush as Sheeran Loopers, one of which he uses on stadium dates.

On July 10, 2015, he became the first solo artist without a backing band to headline Wembley Stadium, and he told the crowd every note was live. In 2018 he filled that 90,000-capacity bowl the same way, standing on a small platform with an acoustic guitar, a microphone, and the pedals. When this Loop run opened in Perth, he played a two-hour-and-45-minute set of 29 songs, building the arrangements in front of the crowd.

Irish folk band Beoga, friends of his for over 10 years and the group on 2017’s “Galway Girl,” had been joining him for a run of songs each night, not covering the whole set. Their exit takes that segment with them. It does not take the looping core that the tour already sold as the main event, which is why a date with no openers and no house band can still be staged as a complete Sheeran show rather than a cancellation.

Every Opener Left After Macklemore Was Cut

Macklemore opened Sheeran’s MetLife Stadium dates on September 4 and 5, performed “Hind’s Hall,” and told the crowd he wanted people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank to hear two words: “Free Palestine.” Venues on the remaining U.S. run then told the promoter they would not host the concerts with him on the bill. He posted on September 14 that the cut had come through Ed Sheeran and his team after pressure from stadium owners.

I didn’t need 10 shows from Ed. I needed 2. Two chances to stand in front of 90,000 people and say the words that somehow became too dangerous to say.

Macklemore, Instagram statement, September 14, 2026

He has known Sheeran for 13 years and called him a brother in that same post. He also wrote that Sheeran told him Robert Kraft, whose Kraft Group owns Gillette Stadium, had barred him from that building and that other owners had issued a joint warning: if Macklemore stayed, the tour would not play their venues.

THE WEEK THE LOOP BILL COLLAPSED

1. September 4 and 5, 2026: Macklemore opens at MetLife Stadium, performs “Hind’s Hall,” and calls for a free Palestine.
2. September 14, 2026: Macklemore says he is off the remaining dates. Messina Touring Group says venues will not allow a concert with him on the lineup. Kraft confirms he will not have Macklemore at Gillette Stadium on September 25 and 26.
3. September 15, 2026: Sheeran posts that the promoter made the call. Aaron Rowe, Lukas Graham, Finneas, and Beoga all withdraw.
4. September 16, 2026: Macklemore pledges $1 million in Loop Tour net earnings to six Palestinian aid groups and asks Kraft to match. Kraft says Sheeran already asked him to commit $2 million.
5. September 18, 2026: The Philadelphia listing moves to 8 p.m., crews keep building the stage, and a protest is set for 4:30 p.m. the next day.
6. September 19, 2026: Lincoln Financial Field remains on the calendar with no announced opener.

Rowe had been due to open the remaining North American nights and wrote that Sheeran had changed his life. He said he could not “allow billionaires who use their position of power to silence the rightful voices of those who speak up against Israeli genocide.” Beoga said playing those stadiums was “the stuff of dreams,” then added that playing “venues that silence anyone advocating for a Free Palestine is simply not an option for us.”

WHO LEFT THE LOOP RUN

• Macklemore: Removed after the MetLife sets; he had been booked on 8 of the 10 remaining U.S. dates.
• Aaron Rowe: Irish singer who withdrew from the remaining North American support slot on September 15.
• Lukas Graham: Danish band that quit the same day, writing that money should not decide which suffering may be named.
• Beoga: Sheeran’s Irish touring band for a run of songs each night, out of the remaining U.S. Loop dates.
• Finneas: Withdrew from six South American shows in November and December, writing, “Artists must not be silenced when they speak up for the oppressed.”

Lukas Graham put the same quarrel in plainer commercial terms: “Money doesn’t give you the right to own the conversation.” Finneas was never on the Philadelphia sheet. Rowe and Lukas Graham were, until they were not.

What Time Does Ed Sheeran Play in Philadelphia?

The Loop Tour stop at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday, September 19, is listed for 8 p.m. after an original 5:30 p.m. start that had been set to fit opening acts. Ticketmaster listed the start time as 8 p.m., and no replacement opener has been named, which makes a late solo headliner the working plan for the Linc.

PHILLY NIGHT AT A GLANCE

• Start time: 8 p.m., moved from 5:30 p.m. once the openers were gone.
• Openers: None announced for Philadelphia as of September 18.
• Resale floor: The cheapest listed seats fell from $91 on Thursday to $66.30 on Friday afternoon.
• Protest: 4:30 p.m. outside the stadium, before doors for the later start.

Stage crews were still building at the Linc on Friday afternoon. The Philadelphia Police Department said it is working with the venue and organizers on safety for concertgoers, staff, and nearby residents, the same posture it takes for other large events at the complex. None of the remaining U.S. Loop dates are sold out, and unused tickets have been surfacing below what buyers originally paid, which matches a bill that lost its support names in public.

Fans who bought a long evening of openers plus a full production are now holding a later ticket to Sheeran alone. That is still a stadium date. It is a different night than the one printed when Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe were on the sheet.

Kraft, Messina, and the Venue Ultimatum

Messina Touring Group, promoter of the U.S. Loop Tour, said venues on the upcoming dates “will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans.” After talks with stakeholders, it said, Macklemore would not perform on the remaining support dates.

Kraft confirmed the Gillette bar in his own statement, citing Macklemore’s New Jersey set, material shown from the stage, and what he called a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery he said had been hurtful to the Jewish community. He said Macklemore’s participation in the September 25 and 26 Gillette concerts “would cross that line.” He has not publicly confirmed Macklemore’s separate claim that he rallied other stadium owners into a group ultimatum.

Sheeran posted the next day. He said he is appalled by the conflict, that Macklemore asked to join the tour last year, and that support acts play a setlist of their choosing. After the New Jersey shows, he wrote, upcoming venues said they would pull the dates if Macklemore stayed. He said he was told the objection was about how part of the message was conveyed, not about everything that was said, and that he spent the week on calls with venues, including Kraft, plus promoters and activists on both sides.

Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine. Macklemore’s contract for the tour was with the promoter, not me. I would never let down the fans who had made plans, nor would I abandon the touring crew and the other support acts and musicians who rely on me for work and to make a living.

Ed Sheeran, Instagram statement, September 15, 2026

He added, “I am not complicit,” said he has personal views he will not air on stage, and wrote that his audience includes young people of all backgrounds who “do not expect a political forum.” Hours later, the support acts and musicians named in that paragraph withdrew anyway. The Israeli American Council had already circulated a petition demanding Macklemore be cut. PACBI, a founding group in the BDS campaign, called on Sheeran to cancel the tour altogether.

Lincoln Financial Field is owned by the city of Philadelphia. The Eagles run day-to-day operations. The Eagles did not comment on whether owner Jeffrey Lurie joined other NFL owners in refusing a bill that still included Macklemore. CAIR’s Pennsylvania office sent an open letter to the Eagles, the city, Lincoln Financial Group, and related parties, calling the removal a free-speech problem on publicly owned land, and filed a right-to-know request asking who told Messina that Macklemore could not play.

Ten U.S. Dates Still Sit on Ed Alone

Ten U.S. Loop dates remain after Philadelphia, then the run moves through South America and ends the year in Mexico City. Macklemore had been booked on the stadium nights, not on the two Hard Rock Live shows in Hollywood, Florida. Gillette Stadium, Kraft’s building, is the first stop after the Linc, with two nights on September 25 and 26.

REMAINING U.S. LOOP DATES

Finneas was to open six South American nights in late November and early December, including Santiago, Asunción, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo. Those dates are now headliner-only on paper as well, unless Messina books new names. No replacement support has been posted for Philadelphia, and the moved start time leaves little room to add one.

Protesters Will Meet Fans at the Linc Gates

Macklemore said on September 16 that he will donate the entire $1 million of his net earnings from the Loop Tour to six groups working with Palestinians: the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, HEAL Palestine, Gaza Soup Kitchen, Medical Aid for Palestinians, the UNRWA U.S.A. National Committee, and the refugee aid group Anera. “Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting,” he wrote, and he invited Kraft to match the gift.

Kraft answered that before that challenge arrived, Sheeran had called and asked him to commit $2 million to match Sheeran’s own donation “to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis.” Kraft pledged that sum and said Sheeran planned to call other venue owners. Neither Kraft nor Sheeran named receiving groups in that exchange. Sheeran has not posted a separate breakdown of his own gift.

Outside the Linc, the Philly Palestine Coalition and Shut Down Day & Zimmermann are due to gather at 4:30 p.m., with speakers from Writers Against the War on Gaza and the Boycott Cooknsolo Coalition. Adi Chattopadhyay, a West Philadelphia resident who plans to be there, said the point is to push back on the silencing of pro-Palestinian speech. The argument around this date is not whether a loop pedal can hold a football stadium. It is which words a stadium will allow, and whether a city-owned field is the right place to draw that line.

Gates still open on September 19 for a headliner who has already proved, at Wembley and on this Loop run, that the rest of the bill can vanish and the songs will still get built in real time under the lights.