Macklemore has been dropped from Las Vegas’ Neon City Festival “due to unforeseen circumstances”, the festival’s team has shared.
In an Instagram post shared yesterday (September 24), the festival updated their line-up in an announcement, simply stating that the rapper “will no longer be performing” at the festival after announcing his inclusion just last Friday (September 20).
The next day, Macklemore released ‘Hind’s Hall 2’, a sequel to his fiery pro-Palestine single in May – this time, he features Palestinian-American artists Anees and Amer Zahr, Gaza-born rapper MC Abdul, and vocals from the Los Angeles Palestinian Kids Choir.
A day after its release, he performed at the Palestine Will Live Forever Festival in Seattle, where he chanted “fuck America” during his set.
A post shared by Neon City Festival (@neoncityfestival)
They state that its headliners – DJ/producers Alison Wonderland and Seven Lions, pop-rock group Neon Trees and singer-songwriter Russell Dickerson – are still set to perform on the event weekend of November 22 to 24. The festival is free entry with no age restrictions. NME has reached out to Macklemore’s representatives for a comment.
His ‘Hind’s Hall’ singles are named after Columbia University’s Hamilton’s Hall, which was renamed Hind’s Hall by pro-Palestine student activists in honour of Hind Rajab – a child killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
Macklemore has said that all proceeds from the track will go to The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Last month Macklemore cancelled his gig in Dubai in an effort to “boycott doing business in UAE” due to the ongoing crisis in Sudan.
Earlier this year, he announced a one-off performance in Dubai, due October 4 at the Coca-Cola Arena. He reveals that, since then, he’s been contacted by people requesting him to cancel the date “in solidarity with the people of Sudan and to boycott doing business in UAE for the role they are playing in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis in the region,” he wrote on social media.
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