Zach Bryan broke the attendance record at Robert Kraft’s Gillette Stadium on Saturday night, performing in front of 73,538 fans — the largest crowd for an event in the venue’s history — while wearing a “Free Palestine” jersey for the second night in a row.
The move was a statement on many levels, but was clearly aimed at Kraft — the billionaire, Trump-supporting Foxborough, Massachusetts stadium owner — who rallied other stadium owners to ban rapper Macklemore from his scheduled opening slot on Ed Sheeran’s tour last month from performing at their venues, after the rapper made pro-Palestinian comments on stage in New Jersey. Kraft had called Macklemore’s comments “hate speech,” with questionable accuracy.
The attendance record, which was broken during the second of Bryan’s two performances at the venue, was announced Sunday morning by tour promoter AEG, and in a press release. post on the stadium’s social media accounts. This latest ad features photos of Bryan wearing the shirt, although the message is illegible and there is no mention of it in the post; however, it is referenced in the majority of comments. Kraft used the Gillette Stadium account to defend his ban of Macklemore; a representative for Kraft did not immediately respond to Varietyrequest for comment.
The move came as both a surprise — Bryan, a proud Navy veteran working in the country genre, who has a fan base that would not be universally welcoming to such a supposedly left-leaning stance — and not, as Bryan has traditionally and staunchly said, from releasing a song criticizing ICE raids to a bitter online dispute with country artist Gavin Adcock. According to fan footage, at least two of Bryan’s group members also wore Palestinian jerseys.
Bryan was seen wearing a T-shirt (with the sleeves cut off, as is his nighttime custom) emblazoned with the “Free Palestine” logo. Below the shirt was the emblem of a pine tree and another message that read “A Call to Heaven.” These are references to a flag commissioned by George Washington in 1775 for a fleet of schooners sent to intercept British ships; it later became the flag of the Massachusetts Navy, giving it a distinct historical and local connection to the Boston area show.
Bryan’s drummer, Nate Head, wore a jersey with Palestine on the front and, on the back, the number 5 and the name “Hind Rajab”. Rajab was a 5-year-old girl in Gaza who was reportedly killed by Israeli army tank fire on January 24, 2024, after being trapped with her cousin and begging for help in a broken-down car for hours.
Some media outlets published a widely reported and apparently false statement Saturday attributed to Bryan. The statement, in which Bryan allegedly defended his position the day before, came from an X account that claims to belong to the singer but does not. (Bryan’s real
Bryan’s politics are somewhat elusive, with the singer-songwriter saying he finds deep problems on both sides of America’s political divides. He had already raised the ire of some on the right with a song called “Bad News,” which, among its scattered character study lyrics, contained a seemingly negative reference to ICE (“ICE will come, blow your door down / Try to build a house that no one builds anymore / But I have a phone / The kids are all scared and all alone”). Following this, many people on social media threatened to “Bud Light”, i.e. subject him to a boycott. But Bryan’s stadium shows have continued to sell out, and the artist has remained largely apolitical in that he takes stands on hot-button issues.
The Foxborough shows are part of Bryan’s biggest tour to date, spanning more than 40 dates across North America and Europe starting in March 2026, and add to a record-breaking year for the artist. On September 27, 2025, he became the first artist to perform at Michigan Stadium, attracting 112,408 fans, the largest paid concert audience in U.S. history. This broadcast surpassed the previous mark of 110,905, set by George Sound in Texas in 2024.
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