Pandemic-Reduced Fenway Crowd Finds New Ways To Get Riled Up

In most live performance, there’s an energetic flow between performers and audience. The performer gives energy to the crowd, where it’s amplified, and the crowd gives energy back, ratcheting up the excitement.

But what happens when a pandemic caps that crowd at 12% or 25%?

In normal times, the Red Sox play to a full house of fans at Fenway Park. More than 37,000 people in it together — pulling, pushing, chanting — reflect the game’s intensity as it progresses.

But under Massachusetts’ COVID-19 restrictions, the Fenway crowd had maxed out at a mere 4,600 until recently — masked, spread out and seated in pods of two and four.

Stadium-rocking sound? Not so much. It was … quieter.

Read the rest of the story at GBH’s website.