More New Jersey residents are about to be able to enjoy indoor entertainment and sports as capacity limits expand for large venues.

The New Jersey Devils will be able to welcome twice as many fans on Friday when the team takes on the Capitols in Newark at the Prudential Center. State COVID-19 guidelines will allow the capacity to go from 10% to 20% limits.

The rule will also apply to indoor entertainment venues like New Jersey Performing Arts Center, which holds at least 2,500 people.

“It will allow us to do socially distances shows over the summer,” says NJPAC executive producer David Rodriguez. “We’re excited about that, but more importantly, it shows us there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

NJPAC is the state’s largest nonprofit performing arts center. It has not hosted indoor performances for ticketbuyers since March 2020. Rodriguez says that the venue plans to resume indoor shows in June. Its largest theater seats a capacity of more than 2,800. He says that the higher COVID capacity limit makes live shows somewhat more viable for now.

“We want to come back. We want to come back as soon as it’s safe. And we want to have a new normal where we can all gather in theaters again,” Rodriguez says.

Indoor venues hope to be able to reopen at full capacity by September with COVID safeguards in place.