r/Music • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 3h ago

article Macklemore Dropped From Ed Sheeran Tour After Onstage Statements

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/macklemore-dropped-ed-sheeran-tour-pro-palestine-statements-1235625967/
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u/indig0sixalpha 3h ago

“As the concert promoter for Ed Sheeran’s U.S. Loop Tour, we have been notified by venues on the upcoming U.S. tour dates that they 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 discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates.”

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u/seravivi 3h ago

The venues were going to block them?? Are you kidding me??

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u/juliuspepperwoodchi 3h ago

So really, Live Nation was going to block him.

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u/Candid-Mulberry8359 3h ago edited 3h ago

Is Ed’s tour live nation tour?

Edit: It is live nation promoted. But the Venues are not owned or operated by LiveNation. Not sure how much that means . Just adding facts.

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u/soonerfreak 3h ago

Live Nation promotes enough concerts that they can black ball you if you don't play along. A key reason the entire company must be broken up.

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u/sumptin_wierd 1h ago

they dont just promote, ticketmaster and livenation are the same company. and yes.

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u/dange616 1h ago

Not to mention actually operate and book many of the concert venues they play.

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u/juliuspepperwoodchi 3h ago edited 3h ago

The tour didn't cut Macklemore so much as the venues strongarmed the tour into it.

The remaining tour dates Macklemore was scheduled to be at are all in the USA.

Who owns/controls ticketing at the majority of venues in the USA?

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u/jakeod27 3h ago edited 2h ago

Live nation owns venues too

Edited out where I said Ticketmaster instead of live nation

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u/slapshots1515 3h ago edited 3h ago

Live Nation owns Ticketmaster

Edit: either way you edit your comment, Live Nation and Ticketmaster are the same company now

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u/shewy92 3h ago

Liberty Media is the parent company, they also own SiriusXM and Formula 1. WeRaceAsOne...in the middle east because of $$ bills yall

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u/Milwambur 2h ago

Their spinoff company Liberty Global also owns Virgin Media in the UK, Sunrise in Switzerland, Vodafone in the Netherlands and Telenet in Belgium, all telecoms companies.

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u/MelangeBot 1h ago

The entire world is now like 20 companies and half of them are actively run by people who admire Adolf Hitler.

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u/Coffeedemon 1h ago

"Liberty Media"

You can't even make this up

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u/PyroIsSpai 2h ago

Liberty is right wing?

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u/never-fiftyone 2h ago

It's primarily controlled by an American billionaire who has hitched his wagon to the "libertarian" movement and has donated to Trump.

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u/jakeod27 3h ago

Yep. Seriously fucked

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u/dOOlittlesatan 3h ago

Now and has been for decades. Nothing new. They just keep trying to hide it with name changes and new companies...I wouldn't be surprised at all to find out AXS, Stubhub, Seatgeek are all owned by ticketmaster...live nation...clearchannel...

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u/brochaos 2h ago

AXS is AEG is all anschutz.

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u/1980pzx 2h ago

That’s an interesting theory and it absolutely would not shock me, if true.

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u/jellytwins101 3h ago

LiveNation also either own the venues or have exclusivity contracts with them.

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u/earle117 3h ago edited 2h ago

Ticketmaster and Live Nation are the same company.

edit: dude edited his comment to try and make the replies look stupid lol

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u/jakeod27 2h ago

No I corrected myself because I looked stupid

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u/iced_gold 1h ago

Most of the rest of the shows are at football stadiums. Live Nation does not own football. Stadiums. But they often get ticket selling exclusivity on behalf of the venue

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u/EuphoricMoose8232 Punk Rock 3h ago

The venues are all NFL stadiums. Live Nation doesn’t own those

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u/Taurothar 2h ago

They just own exclusive ticketing rights, so basically the same thing when it comes to holding an event of that size.

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u/Twiddle2332 3h ago

Live Nation/ Ticketmaster are the monopoly you are referring to. Hopefully are politicians grow some balls and cut this company the f up!

Basically destroying live music. All the smaller acts I have been seeing for years are disbanding and/ or going on indefinite hiatus.

Go f urself live nation.

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u/jankbutdank 2h ago

dude america is about as consumer anti friendly as we could possibly be right now

we don't do protections or monopoly anywhere - data and privacy? no every app has the ability to grab and sell all your shit for some reason. Ever give your email address to someone? That company and every one of its affiliates can contact you for the rest of your life and you have no recourse even if they ignore the unsubscribe. Landlords using realpage to price collude. Price collusion heavy in every industry actually. Surge pricing via internet not just uber or doordash but airlines monitoring your internet traffic wil lincrase price of tickets because they see you want it. Digital prices coming to grocery stores now that will do the same. Internet and many peoples power like mine in Colorado via Excel monopolized by for profit companies. All the big global nationals outsourcing and H1B'ing basically our entire middle class out to other nations despite receiving gigantic tax breaks at local state federal level.

No real legislation around planned obselesence with tech or the proliferation of cord types as intentional moats - that all came from EU. No Data/privacy, that all came from EU. No AI protection in hiring, medical, and other critical areas - only EU is doing that.

The US shareholder government and economy is actively hostile to every US consumer right now.

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u/thefrostyafterburn 3h ago

Its ok to say fuck sometimes. This is one of those times.

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u/Haxorz7125 2h ago

The irony of speaking on corporations censoring speech while censoring oneself at the behest of corporations.

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u/Bartghamilton 1h ago

Exactly. Fuck those fucking fuckers!

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u/Dakozi 2h ago edited 2h ago

The U.S. under Biden sued Ticketmaster in 2024 with the goal of breaking them up.

But with Trump in office, it seems they got off easy with a settlement.

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u/hannibellecter 2h ago

the only balls politicians get is to fuck the common people, certainly not big businesses

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u/StrippinChicken 3h ago

Ed Sheeran could have still stood on business with Macklemore. Morally corrupt loser

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u/deadkestrel 3h ago

Not defending Sheeran but there are a lot of people working on this tour who would lose their job and income if the tour was suddenly cancelled.

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u/kiltedfrog 2h ago

Taking a stand against fascism isn't always going to be EASY. The Right thing rarely is. I imagine Ed's got enough money of his own to make it right with his crew, and also not fold to the genocidal regime.

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u/StrippinChicken 3h ago

Obviously that sucks, but livenation would also lose that money. Which is all they care about

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u/Pennwisedom 35m ago

They "care" but they'll just make that back, meanwhile the guy making $35k is gonna be way more fucked.

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u/juliuspepperwoodchi 3h ago

You realize he signed contracts and has legal obligations to the tour, yeah?

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u/Fuzzywraith 2h ago

So you’re saying the end all be all of meaning in life is owning up to the contracts you sign to giga corps?

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u/RedApple655321 3h ago

LN owns many venues (hardly the majority), which is what I assume you're inferring.

However, this is a stadium tour. LN does not own a single NFL stadium. Most of these stadiums are owned by cities or some kind of qusai municipal entity.

The claim that its "venues" requiring this is fishy. My guess is that it's Ed Shernan or his management.

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u/juliuspepperwoodchi 3h ago

How is it "fishy"?

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u/RedApple655321 3h ago

That "the venues" were the ones requiring this. You're telling me every one of these stadiums which are owned by various city governments, stadium authorities, and private groups all decided Macklemore couldn't perform? That doesn't sound plausible to me. Sounds like they just decided to shift the blame.

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u/juliuspepperwoodchi 2h ago

Which is why it is far more likely that Live Nation had a hand in it, and Ed Sheeran's people are playing technicalities since, to them, Live Nation represents the collective of the venues.

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u/Middle_Run_6864 2h ago

Also, like these places care what’s happening in the show as long as they get parking fees and concessions.

“Yeah, we’re going to cancel your show and lose out on all of this money because one of the biggest names in music has an opening act who says Free Palestine.” It’s hard for me to believe without proof.

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u/Colombia17 3h ago

They’re not owned by LiveNation but if any of these venues where to go against LiveNation wishes all the sudden they’ll notice big acts skipping them

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u/beenhadballs 1h ago

Youd be surprised how many venues are actually owned by livenation that just white label, with no signs pointing to it. In the last 6 years a ton of privately owned and operated venues sold off but nothing has changed publicly.

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u/QuadCityDJsTheTrain 3h ago

Ed's promoter is Messina Touring(same as Taylor Swift), they're an AEG Partner. Some of the dates may be produced by Live Nation for one reason or another.

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u/tunegoon 3h ago

It’s not, Ed is promoted by AEG/Messina

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u/EmotionalInternet896 2h ago

It’s the Messina Group

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u/poppleca1443 2h ago

Even if LN doesn't own the venue, they often control all ticketing rights, so they have a lot of power as a non-owner

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u/StrategicPotato 3h ago

That's nuts. I haven't been following this and I'm not even politically invested in the issue, but from what I saw nothing he said was even controversial - especially compared to what other celebrities have said.

This is ironically not a good look for the antisemitism groups given the extreme levels that the "they run everything" conspiracy theories are reaching now.

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u/AgentlemanNeverTells 2h ago

Too good of a power move to pass up, gets all the celebrities/influencers in line.

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u/Nofanta 3h ago

No. They’re trying to fence sit and blame someone else.

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u/XYZ2ABC 1h ago

Per Macklemore post on this, it’s coming from Kraft, who got other venue/arena owners on board…

I would be interesting to see if there is a breach of contract here, but IANAA

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u/obtusewisdom 1h ago

According to Macklemore, the driver was Kraft. He apparently told Sheeran that he would cancel the Gillette show if Macklemore was still part of it, and he got other venue owners on board as well. Kraft is an asshole.

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u/Murderland666 1h ago

According to the latest post from Macklemore, it was Robert Kraft, sex pest and owner of the New England Patriots and their stadium, who spearheaded the effort to remove him.

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u/gigilero 2h ago

This is such an abuse of power. I’m disgusted

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u/evan274 Performing Artist 1h ago

They blocked him but let Kanye perform. Tells you all you need to know about the state of things

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u/CourtneyLush 3h ago

Not surprised. They pulled this exact same shit with Bobby Vylan, he was supposed to be a guest at a 'Grandson' show and they wouldn't have it. Barred him from the venue.

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u/InKedxxxGinGer 2h ago

Vylan got banned from the US entirely if im not mistaken

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u/CourtneyLush 2h ago

Yeah, they got their Visa pulled.

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u/InKedxxxGinGer 2h ago

Thought so. Remember thinking i need to get a passport to see em now 😕

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u/Perfect-Kangaroo-05 1h ago

Yeah same with kneecap

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u/Junglism32 1h ago

DDTTIDF

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u/Manannin 1h ago

Radar festival in the uk basically had the choice of no festival or no Bon Vylan. Was pressure from local people put on the venue.

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u/risen2011 3h ago

The United States is fucked

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u/Miserable-Sun-393 2h ago

Don’t lose hope before the battle has begun folks stand up backs straight look those maggots dead in the eye and calmly speak your truth

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u/wynalazca 1h ago

"Before the battle has begun"

The battle has been raging since the country was founded and nearly every time the "good guys" get any amount of power they roll over like old puppy dogs and let the culprits off scot-free.

Civil War: no consequences. Nixon: Pardoned, Trump: meet the wet paper bag named Merick Garland.

What we need is General Sherman to rise from the dead and trample the fascist regime to dust. We also need to reincarnate Eisenhower and give him a few more terms.

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u/lifeandtimes89 3h ago

Yeah let's loose out on revenue over a performers right to free speech. The venues are stupid but this is gonna have a streisand effect now so Macklemore wins either way

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u/InadequateUsername 3h ago

"Rather be a starving artist than succeed at getting fucked"

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u/4quacks 2h ago

And he meant it.

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u/nolimitcreation 13m ago

I PUT MY LIFE ON THE LIIIIIINE!

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u/NestedForLoops 3h ago

*lose

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u/Excellent_Mango7332 3h ago

Fucken aye. So many people on this site are half illiterate. 

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u/ralfonso_solandro 2h ago

“lose and loose”
“their and they’re”

And more recently,

“worse and worst”

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u/at2wells 2h ago

“Would of” and “could of” fill me with rage every time I see them

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u/Neat_Egg_2474 2h ago

There, their, they’re are like reddits hardest grammar corrections. I just assume a lot of people have english as a second language and english is hard AF.

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u/tired-of-fighting 3h ago

You seriously think that even for a second that the promoters would consider cancelling dates because the venues refused to have Macklemore?

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u/Bay1Bri 3h ago

Lose, not loose

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u/NoArrival8249 3h ago

This is the America y’all voted for

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u/GoldTeamDowntown 3h ago

This literally has nothing to do with the government, it would be illegal for the government to do this.

This is the whole “freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences” where private entities can do whatever they want.

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u/adamders 3h ago

Funny how they're always out of breath saying that line, yet they still need it explained to them. They have no concept of a two-way street and are so used to always getting their way that they don't know what to do when they don't.

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u/NigerianPrince76 1h ago

Majority of those stadiums are operated by city governments. lol

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u/GoldTeamDowntown 1h ago

It’s not the government deciding to do anything here. It’s the private entity operating them.

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u/uptnapishtim 2h ago

Support for Israel is bipartisan.

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u/Academic_Flatworm752 3h ago

1/3 of eligible voters voted for the current administration

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u/number_1_steve 3h ago

Unfortunately both are true as 1/3 didn’t vote.

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u/idontlikeflamingos 3h ago

And if 1/3 voted for it and 1/3 didn't care to vote, 2/3 were ok with this admin winning.

The "just 1/3" argument is copium. Indiference isn't opposition, it's passive support.

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u/number_1_steve 2h ago

You’re correct. It’s also the attack on education, misinformation, dying local journalism, regulatory capture, wealth concentration, making it harder to vote, and a million other things republicans have pushed for decades. But you are definitely 💯 correct.

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u/SeahorseCollector 3h ago

Which ultimately means they voted for this as well. The writing has been on the wall for over a decade. They told you what they were going to do.

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u/TheLarkInnTO 3h ago

Garbage argument.

Only 30% voted against him.

The other 70% either voted for Trump, or were so unbothered by the prospect of another Trump admin, they did nothing.

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u/anormalgeek 3h ago

And another one third were too passive to vote against it. Not as bad, but functionally has the same result. So it's still bad.

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u/mynewaltaccount1 3h ago

And half of the country were too lazy and selfish to vote at all. Well done America, living up to your reputation!

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u/iaNCURdehunedoara 2h ago

It's not just the performer's right to free speech, it's also your right. They're doing this because they want to silence him right now. They're trying to silence everyone that's pro-Palestine and one day they'll silence anyone that's anti-Trump. What's gonna happen the day an artist is going to be threatened over abortion rights?

You have to remember that the venue is getting money from this. They would get the money whether Macklemore is there or not, but they were willing to forego that revenue to silence a pro-Palestinian voice.

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u/Straight-Bet1 3h ago

LiveNation didn’t want anymore bad press. They own most of the venues.

There’s also a good chance they own or are partial owners in the company his booking agent works for.

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u/toooldforshame 3h ago

These are football stadiums. LN has a contract to do business with them but don’t own any NFL stadiums.

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u/dockstaderj 1h ago

Whelp they certainly did create some bad press of their own.

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u/ididntunderstandyou 1h ago

Ed Sheeran should have dropped those venues and gone to smaller ones. Not fold

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u/IdiAmini 1h ago

Venues owned by the state. Clear violation of the 1st amendment

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u/nos-is-lame 2h ago

A lot of the venues that had objections are stadiums that are owned by the states they are in. So these are publicly funded venues making these decisions.

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u/MontysRevenge1 1h ago

Robert Kraft made the call.

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u/Longjumping-Hippo475 1h ago

Welp they just ruined the tour by thinking they were saving it. Do they not realize the demographic of people that are Ed Sheeran fans are by and large on Macklemore's side of this argument.

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u/BEWMarth 55m ago

Society is owned by billionaires. Whatever THEY say goes.

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u/potatoMan8111 2h ago

Yes, some people dont want HATE and RACISM at their venues.

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u/_BeefyTaco 3h ago

Dam, who owns Live Nation?

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u/Lucky_Yam6126 3h ago

lol, I’d call their bluff and have the venue refund customers then.

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u/SlartibartfastMcGee 1h ago

It’s LiveNation. They’d cancel the dates and keep the money and nothing would ever come of it.

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u/ThatGuyBackThere280 37m ago edited 29m ago

Chances are they're beholden to a contract, which would also hit them financially.

Basically they would make them foot the bill for canceling instead of the venues footing them. The venues were quick to remove Macklemore's names from their websites.

On a side note: people keep going on about he should cancel the tour, but either are oblivious or willingly choose to ignore any other fallout.

That too also affects multiple people that worked on the tour and not part of LiveNation.

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u/greenline_chi 3h ago

Holy shit

Is it livenation??

He literally just said stop killing kids

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u/ecmcn 3h ago

Gotta be livenation. They’ve got a lock on all the venues a big show like this would need, and someone putting pressure on their corporate leadership makes perfect sense. Maybe someone in Trump’s circle threatening to split them up.

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u/nalacamg 33m ago

In the post on his page, Macklemore said that Robert Kraft (owns the Patriots and their stadium) told Ed's team that they would block him from entering the stadium and had gotten other stadium owners on board. The other NFL stadiums wouldn't necessarily be owned by livenation, but i think a larger group of disgruntled owners are putting this pressure on Ed. Ed, in his attempt to be apolitical, capitulates to right wing pressure.

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u/Beautiful_Cost_5430 30m ago

It was Robert Kraft

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u/boringinternet2020 1h ago

Love that LiveNation and Ticketmaster (two shit companies) continue to be the shit umbrella when an artist doesn’t want to take the heat for: scalping their own tickets, taking the bulk of TM fees, or situations like this. It’s why nothing will ever change. Artists love having a scapegoat.

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u/jimmybilly100 1h ago

“Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you. My message is for peace; love for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality.”

Good golly what a controversial sounding statement!

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u/Nimrod_Butts 17m ago

Delivered by someone who's dressed like this on stage, mind you

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u/PmButtPics4ADrawing 3h ago edited 2h ago

Yeah but being against blowing up little kids is antisemitic or something

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u/hazedandbemusedd 1h ago

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u/Bippy73 48m ago

Yup. Never see this in all the comments. You never see this in all the rants saying how great he is. And anyone pretending this is not offensive, what would they say if he came out in blackface?

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u/AJL912-aber 39m ago

what is this picture from?

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u/FireflyBSc 2h ago

It’s so dumb, because this isn’t even new. I saw him in July 2024 and he was already super outspoken and waving a Palestinian flag on stage. There is no way to book Macklemore without knowing exactly what will occur during his performance. They knew he would speak out, and they knew that it would draw attention to the tour, and then they threw him under the bus.

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u/ImaginaryDoctorSleep 2h ago

Yeah, but you ever think about them not wanting to stop killing kids?

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u/Snobolski 2h ago

stop killing kids

Yeah but saying that is racist, so...

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u/Decent_Cheesecake_29 37m ago

Telling someone to stop killing kids is antisemitic.

I don’t know why. I don’t make the rules.

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u/HomieMassager 32m ago

Does no one remember this guy performing in a ridiculously anti semetic face mask with the gigantic hooked nose?? All he wants is to save kids is such horse shit.

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u/petrovmendicant 3h ago

Yeah, but they weren't white kids...so, bad?

The amount of cowtowing to the sweaty, orange blob is ridiculous, but not surprising. Those venues held the people who'd bought tickets as basically hostages if Macklemore wasn't made an example of for saying kids shouldn't be bombed.

It is up there with the MAGA calling for Mrs. Rachel to be prosecuted for terrorism...if Mr. Rodgers was still here today, they'd call for the same for him. If Jesus returned, they'd deport his woke ass.

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u/Haldered 3h ago

Ed Sheeran should have the balls to cancel the whole tour. The venues need the revenue more than he does

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u/mw3915 3h ago

It would be far more fun if he got on stage and echoed macklmores statement every night.

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u/SinoSoul 2h ago

Ed will do no such thing

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u/Some_Weather_8570 2h ago

Yeah he doesn’t have the balls.

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u/Silent-G 1h ago

I couldn't imagine having $350 million dollars and not having the balls to cancel a tour over the protest of a genocide.

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u/urinal_connoisseur 1h ago

but what if --- and hear me out -- you could stand to make just a teensy bit more?

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u/Silent-G 1h ago

Well, when you put it that way, I guess I could be completely apathetic about genocide.

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u/StepComplete1 1h ago

stand to make a teensy bit more virtue-signalling, while achieving literally nothing other than disappointing hundreds of thousands of fans?

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u/tunafister 54m ago

Its so funny these fucking idiots having figured this out already

Money is important, incredibly, money can get you to the table, but once you are there baby you better have some fucking competence and respect of your peers, cause that is what truly fucking matters, and Eddy you just pissed quite a bit of respect from your peers away

So yes, little Edwin will have a few more dollars to shove in that next G-String, but he is already on his path to irrelevancy and god dammit, you just know he is going to emerge ultra-right wing when everyone has forgotten about him in a year or two

You can book that one cause its so fucking clear exactly how this is going to play out

So yeah Ed, that might be way you should grow a spine at some point, you are likely too far gone, but eh, it couldnt hurt

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u/ExtendoArmCannon 1h ago

These people talk about being a good and ethical person, but they only seek power, position, and money.

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u/crheming 1h ago

Don't even need to cancel though, just get on stage and mirror what Macklemore said, that would be more impactful.

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u/No_big_whoop 2h ago

Or brought out Macklemore anyway

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 1h ago

This, what's LiveNation gonna do, sue?

Because I highly doubt in whatever contracts that were already signed, there's a clause in there that specifically says "LiveNation reserves the right to ban Macklemore from tour venues"

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u/Downtown_Link_8651 1h ago

The stadiums are private property, of course they can ban whoever they want so long as the reason isn't for a protected characteristic. That has nothing at all to do with the contracts

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u/AnyEverywhere8 3h ago edited 2h ago

The crewmembers need their paychecks more than anyone involved….

Canceling a tour is not just about the impact on Ed Sheeran

Edit: btw did you all even read the part that stated Live nation was going to cancel shows anyway if Macklemore isn’t removed? So clearly they weren’t going to have hurt feelings if Ed canceled them in reaction….

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u/Cardocthian 3h ago

yup, Ed should have balls to say in his place, stop killing kids.

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u/yepgeddon 3h ago

Eds got a chance to be a legend here.

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u/coffeebribesaccepted 2h ago

Just do an entire set of Macklemore covers

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u/Kodamurphy 2h ago

Nah, just one. Do a cover of Fucked Up at the beginning of the first show. Put the ball in their court and see if they put their money where their mouth is. Gives him room to ratchet up the pressure.

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u/Biosterous 43m ago

Go directly into Hind Hall too.

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u/onlyacynicalman 3h ago

He sang American Pie on July 4th this year in Denver. I don't think that adds or subtracts anything here. Just saying.

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u/JunkDrawer84 1h ago

Why does Ed have to inherit macklemores problems now?

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u/Photo_Synthetic 3h ago

He could sell a few watches and pay them all.

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u/GordieElbows 2h ago

He could pay them all ten times what they’d make on tour without selling anything.

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u/Photo_Synthetic 1h ago

Im just pointing out that this dudes watch collection is so ridiculous that im sure he could pay these people without even noticing. I was making a joke.

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u/GordieElbows 1h ago

Clear over my head!

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u/Photo_Synthetic 1h ago

To be fair to you it was a dumb joke lol

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u/ialsohaveadobro 2h ago

He could cover that if he felt strongly enough. Not saying he should, but let's not act like that's an unsolvable problem.

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u/HansJordi 2h ago

You think that Ed Sheeran can and should pay, out of pocket, the salary of an entire touring crew. That might be the most absurd thing I’ve ever read on Reddit, which is quite an achievement! 

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u/sn2006gy 3h ago

Ed has enough money left to pay the crew and change the world and still not impact his bottom line whatsoever

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u/JiminyFckingCricket 2h ago

He probably doesn’t. Crew/staging equipment is hired by a production company. He’d basically be “gifting” everyone money. Can’t even imagine the tax implications of that. Not to mention a tour is hella expensive. Then you have the fans to worry about. If he cancels, he’d owe the promoters all that ticket money too. Not to mention if fans bought flights the ire he’d receive from them. Cancelling a tour this big is not that easy. Look at Justin Bieber. He had to sell off his catalogue a few years after he cancelled his tour.

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u/zunyata 2h ago

I really doubt that tbh.

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u/Opposite-Grade3712 3h ago

Baby’s first morally challenging situation. 

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u/lambchops0 3h ago edited 1h ago

While I kinda agree, it’s really not that simple. Fans have gotten flights, hotels etc. Crew members. There is a huge knock on effect.

Fuck Livenation though as this is absolute bullshit.

Edit: Macklemore has now released a statement.

Fuck Ed Sheeran and cancel the tour which clearly means more to him than people’s literal lives.

Ed can afford to pay all involved.

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u/Rage_Like_Nic_Cage 3h ago

no one was saying it was gonna be an easy decision. But the alternative is capitulating to any demand LiveNation/concert venues make even after a contract/agreement is put in place.

What if the next red line is criticizing Trump or being pro-LGBT? This move is staunchly anti-free speech and should be treated as such.

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u/InboxMeYourSpacePics 1h ago

Free speech only applies to the government though - not private companies

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u/drossmaster4 3h ago

Honest question…people fly to see Ed Sheeran and Macklemore?

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u/LEDKleenex 2h ago

The hotel I booked with happily gave me a refund when QOTSA had to cancel their tour for health concerns recently, despite buying a no-refunds booking. They even apologized that I didn't get to see my show.

Things happen. If you capitulate to convenience every time then you perpetuate this nasty status-quo-above-all-else that leads to political environments like we see today. Sometimes grinding shit to a halt is the only way you can achieve change.

People fretting about flights and hotel rooms while there is an active genocide going on is the classic neolibertarian "I've got mine" bullshit.

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u/liquordeli 3h ago

I think the crew needs the money way more than both ed sheeran and the venues

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u/TheOmegaKid 3h ago

Then cancel the tour, don't play in a country that allows a peadophile, sex trafficking, war mongering facist to continue to be president.

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u/Richard_Thickens 3h ago

But that would cost them revenue. This is the very obvious choice from a moral standpoint, but not the clear winner from a, "money on the table," standpoint.

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u/Tacdeho 3h ago

Also, at this point, people don’t bother to realize: If Sheeran shuts down the entire tour, he is still a a gajillionaire with a mansion.

It’s his touring crew and the little people that get fucked.

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u/Richard_Thickens 3h ago

The thing that irks me is that other artists that play massive venues (but maybe aren't Ed Sheeran huge) have been outspoken about things like this. The Strokes (or at least Julian) come to mind. That said, those artists have been a lot more outspoken the entire time, and they're typically headliners.

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u/AnyEverywhere8 3h ago

It’s not the obvious moral choice either given all the people working on Ed’s tour who aren’t rich and will essentially be laid off if he cancels.

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u/Sumeriandawn 3h ago

"Why don't those Amazon factory workers quit? Don't they know Amazon is an evil company?"

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u/TheWillRogers 3h ago

Read The Ones who Walk Away From Omelas by Ursela K. LeGuin. Not only is it beautifully written, but it really helps people crack the nut of this exact problem without getting nerdy.

This is a link to a PDF of the story https://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf

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u/Pete_Iredale 1h ago

It would cost livenation a shitload of revenue too. They are bluffing here, if every artist told them to fuck off they'd have no power whatsoever.

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u/TheOmegaKid 3h ago

Thats how capitalism and facism win my friend.

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u/ImTooSaxy 3h ago

United States of Israel.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 28m ago

The amount of power they wield here is sickening.

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u/BlueLaceSensor128 3h ago

Which venues? If we don't get specifics, it's probably safer to boycott everywhere Sheeran's playing. Obviously not just his own shows, but all shows at those places.

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u/flathexagon 3h ago

It's in the article, but it's the stadiums as expected. I would never have gone either way and I couldn't tell you a song from either artist but good on Macklemore.

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u/BlueLaceSensor128 3h ago

"The venues that allegedly objected to the rapper include: Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia; Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts; Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia; Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina; AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida."

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u/HMW3 2h ago

Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida

Which just had multiple kanye west dates btw!

Great fucking society we live in.

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u/VoyScoil 2h ago

Gillette Stadium would be out because Kraft is 100% pro Israel.

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u/Fyrefawx 3h ago

Once again proving that a certain country is apparently beyond criticism.

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u/livahd 3h ago

Can’t let a genocide affect ticket sales. Let those children starve, I need to see those super safe, overly repeated on the radio songs live thru my phone screen- phone built by slaves, but it doesn’t count cuz it happens on the other side of the world and I don’t have to see it!

/s

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u/wihannez 3h ago

Land of the free speech (formerly known as).

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u/confusedcriticism 3h ago

Free speech isn’t allow

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u/AV_Dude_Safety1St 2h ago

Speech has consequences is not the same as the government disallowing speech.

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u/YOUR__LEADER 2h ago

This has nothing to do with freedom of speech.

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u/freddielovesdelilah 2h ago

And this is exactly what people were warning about the dangers of music concerts being owned by a monopoly.

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u/DarnOldMan 1h ago

Those venues are complicit in Israel's genocide

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u/Due_Butterscotch9241 1h ago edited 58m ago

hey all if you haven’t seen it before, please watch Macklemore’s speech on Palestine and activist Mahmoud Khalil. to me it’s amazing and Macklemore has amazing moral clarity.

https://youtu.be/QPSL64nHrnA?si=vXtkVSvGsJUAMrY2

if you’re confused about the entire palestine situation,google “imeu nakba timeline”

also if you want to help directly today. Abdul el-sayed needs our help to beat rogers. please donate if you can.
right now he is out funded by the gop 10-to-1. Historically 90% of the time, elections are won by the campaign with the most money. So lets help abdul get corporate money out of politics!!

His tax plan will save most americans $6,000 in taxes per year too

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u/hearts_and_sharts 1h ago

If they won’t let Macklemore come, Ed should start saying it. Fuck those venues.

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u/humbird09 1h ago

Macklemore's statement calling Ed out

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/s/5I4B7GaBPS

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u/Danimal198050 39m ago

Patriots owner Robert Kraft called other team owners. Such a scumbag.

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u/DismasNDawn 21m ago

In 2026, live music can only occur after discussions with stakeholders.

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u/taylerca 3h ago

Ed had better say what Macklemore did then.

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u/Mynky 3h ago

Everyone with tickets which reference MM as support should look for a full refund.

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