For more than a year, nightlife in Boston was dead. Masks had to be worn, there were capacity limits at venues and food had to be ordered with drinks. There was no way dance clubs and concerts could operate properly with these guidelines.
But on May 29, Gov. Charlie Baker lifted all COVID-19 restrictions in the state of Massachusetts -- Boston was back.
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The summer was dubbed "Hot Vax Summer," a play on rapper Megan Thee Stallion's "Hot Girl Summer" anthem. Club owners and partygoers had other names for the reopening period, from the "Roaring 2020s" or the "Raging 2020s" to "The Summer of Ouchi Fauci."
Sports, concerts, dance clubs, they all came back to life, and NBC10 Boston was there to document the nightlife scene as reopening unfolded -- watch in the above video.
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But as new COVID-19 variants emerge and breakthrough case numbers increase, it's unclear which direction Massachusetts is heading in. Boston Mayor Kim Janey brought back indoor mask mandates in August, although Baker has not added statewide mandates due to the high vaccination and low hospitalization rates. As we head into the fall, COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts are back above 1,000 per day.
Will this decade really be the "Roaring 2020s"?
