COVID

Performance and sports venues will be reopening soon in Mass. Will you go?

After a year of sequestering, are even limited crowds something we're ready to face again?

A billboard on Boston's Paramount Theatre offered support to passersby to observe social distancing at the outset of the pandemic last March. AP Photo/Steven Senne

By Peter Chianca

February 26, 2021

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A year into the coronavirus pandemic, there’s no denying that everyone is eager to get out and do some of the things we used to take for granted. But are we really ready to sit in a full restaurant eating dinner as someone sings at us? It’s a conundrum.

Gov. Charlie Baker announced Thursday that the state would move to the second step of Phase 3 on Monday, March 1, lifting capacity limits and permitting musical performances in restaurants, while at the same time allowing for a return of indoor performance venues at 50 percent capacity (500 people maximum), and indoor recreational activities like laser tag and escape rooms, also at 50 percent.

And on March 22 — assuming continuing positive trends in terms of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations — we’ll move into the first step of Phase 4, allowing fans into indoor and outdoor stadiums, arenas, and ballparks at 12 percent capacity.

But some in the medical community aren’t thrilled with the idea, wanting Massachusetts to move further along in its vaccination efforts before reopening to that extent. And beyond that are the psychological roadblocks: After a year of sequestering, are even limited crowds something we’re ready to face again?

Boston.com wants to know what you think. Take the survey below (or e-mail [email protected]), and we may feature your response in an upcoming article.