I went to the 4Knots Music Festival after work yesterday and didn’t get much fun out of it. It wasn’t a total bust. At least I got up close to see about 40 minutes worth of the Nude Beach set but the experience went south after that.

4Knots is what was formerly known as Siren. Still sponsored by the once-great but now near-dead Village Voice newspaper, 4Knots is in its fourth year at the Seaport after a great decade-long run on Coney Island as Siren. I’ve been to plenty of great non-Knots shows on the Seaport pre-Sandy and found it to be a wonderful place to see a show. But the layout and management of this 4Knots was horribly ill-conceived.

The main stage on Pier 16 was set maybe a hundred yards out from main land and was difficult to see for many of the fans bunched up behind the gaudy, view-obstructing sound board near the front. Booths with commercial interests wasted what would have been desirable space along the sides of the pier. Because people couldn’t see, people talked. It sucked.

The beer situation was screwed up too. Two 4Knots beer tents under the F-D-R Drive sold $5 cups of Bud to those who had wristbands and pre-purchased beer tickets. When I started to walk out of the tent with my first two cold Buds, security grabbed me by the waist. I spilled a few ounces from each cup from the abrupt halt in my movement and said “What the Heck?”

“You have to drink those in the tent,” said the security person.

“But there are people all over the pier walking around with the same cups of beer,” I said. “What’s the deal?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

So, I stayed in the tent as directed, and watched people with the same cups of beer walking around outside it – stumped at what appeared to be an inconsistency in the 4Knots policy. All I can surmise is that those walking around with 4Knots cups of Bud bought them in the VIP ship and were allowed greater freedom than non-VIP’s.

Earlier in the afternoon, I walked around the Fest with a jumbo can of Modelo purchased at a bodega near City Hall and that was no problem. That’s what I should have stuck with but by that time I was committed to the tent with the purchase of several $5 beer tickets.

For a gathering of this magnitude, I’d have thought South Street would be shut to vehicular traffic. There were large clusters of pedestrians moving between the two stages on opposite sides of busy South Street yet the only added safety precaution in place was the presence of an outside vendor attempting to make sure crowds walked with the light at Fulton.

I left after Mac DeMarco wrapped up but not before spending more time in the tent so as not to leave any beer tickets on the table.