Fenway Park Boston: Red Sox, Game Day Guide & Kenmore Square

Fenway Park is one of the most storied sports venues in the world — the oldest Major League Baseball park in the United States, opened in 1912 and still operating, home to the Boston Red Sox and a place of almost religious significance to New England sports fans. Attending a Red Sox game at Fenway is one of the quintessential American sports experiences: the Green Monster (the 11-metre left-field wall that has defined Fenway's unique geometry since the beginning), the hand-operated scoreboard, and the intimate scale of a 37,000-seat stadium that feels dramatically smaller than modern ballparks all contribute to an atmosphere that newer, more comfortable stadiums cannot replicate.

Even visitors with no particular interest in baseball find a Fenway game compelling for the cultural experience: the rituals of peanuts and Cracker Jack, the singing of Sweet Caroline in the 8th inning (a Fenway tradition so embedded it has spread to Red Sox broadcasts worldwide), and the passionate engagement of a Boston sports crowd that takes its suffering and its triumphs with equal intensity. Tours of the park are available when no game is scheduled and are highly recommended — seeing the park without crowds allows examination of the historic details that game day excitement tends to obscure. The Fenway Park Museum within the stadium documents the park's and team's remarkable history.

The surrounding Kenmore Square neighbourhood has evolved from its 1970s status as a gritty entertainment district into a lively urban village anchored by Boston University to the west and the Fenway cultural district to the east. The Museum of Fine Arts and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum — two of the finest art institutions in New England — are within walking distance of the park, making the Fenway area one of the most culturally rich zones in Boston. The park is accessible via the Green Line to Kenmore station.