Friday marked Kahan’s third and penultimate night in Boston on “The Great Divide” tour with openers Gigi Perez and Annabelle Dinda. Scafidi, her daughter, and her sister have been Kahan fans since 2019 and hoped to get tickets, but had just as much fun outside Fenway.
Scafidi’s sister, Connie Mooney, who is 62 and also retired, called the atmosphere “electric.”
“It’s giving me hope back for humanity,” Mooney, who is from Arlington, said.
Kahan, who hails from Vermont, has a special place in New Englanders’ hearts for his folk tunes that put to words what it’s like to grow up in the area. He ended his “Stick Season” tour with two sold-out nights at Fenway Park in July 2024, and released a subsequent live album from the shows. Friday was his fifth time performing at the ballpark.
“He makes those references that I’m sure people from other areas and regions understand, but it hits a little bit different when you’re from here,” Charlie Almeida, a 24-year-old caretaker from South Boston, said.
He explained songs like “Staying Still” feature “seasonal references, family references, stuff like that. Things about Storrow Drive and Logan Airport.”
Kahan’s July 7, 8, 10, and 11 concerts make him the first-ever artist to sell out four consecutive shows at Fenway, some 150,000 tickets sold, with Governor Maura Healey declaring July 11 “Noah Kahan Day” in celebration. Tickets for the shows ranged approximately from $75 to $400, though prices soared on the resale market.
“Tickets were kind of out of my tax bracket, so this was the next best thing,” 26-year-old P.J. Sharry, a camp counselor from Worcester, joked outside the ballpark.
The July 7 and 8 shows were wet and windy, but that didn’t stop fans from gathering curbside then, either.
“[Seeing] the videos of the past few nights of all the people down here, I was shocked,” Sharry said. “I was like, ‘I want to experience that for myself.’”
Packed outside Gate E, when Kahan took the stage at 8 p.m., fans sang, clapped, danced, and cheered with as much enthusiasm as those inside.
“With all the World Cup stuff going on, [my friends and I] have been really into the idea of just being in these public spaces where everyone’s gathering and enjoying a common experience,” Almeida said.
For some, that common experience sparked new friendships.
Kate McLoughlin, 20, a student in Boston, met 18-year-old Haleigh Johnson, a student from Westfield, outside the venue. The pair arrived separately with their respective friends, but when Johnson asked McLoughlin to dance, she happily obliged.
“There’s an instant relatability to the people around you,” McLoughlin said.
“I think it’s an entirely different experience in and of itself. There’s FOMO, of course, of being in there, but I think being out here on the street, it’s just a different type of connection that the people in there aren’t getting.”
Lucky fans who stuck around till the end of the 2½-hour show enjoyed fireworks and caught a glimpse of Kahan on his way out, leaning out of the window of his vehicle and waving.
“I think it’s incredible,” 21-year-old Julia Ludovico, a student from Wallingford, Conn., said of the crowd. “It’s a testament to Noah Kahan. … So many people who weren’t able to get tickets still showed up to be a part of this, and I think that’s special.”
Janira Skrbkova can be reached at janira.skrbkova@globe.com.
