Village Voice 4Knots Music Fest – 7.16.11
On Saturday the Village Voice threw their first summer music festival that wasn’t Siren Fest. Siren was an annual NYC tradition held at Coney Island for 10 years until it was replaced this year by the 4Knots Music Festival. 4Knots was headlined by The Black Angels and Titus Andronicus and featured a handful of bands which originally seemed a little disappointing compared to the two stages of bands and some of the bigger headliners Siren had over the years. But 4Knots in my opinion ended up being a lot of fun and in a lot of ways it was better time than past Siren’s have been.
The first improvement is obviously the location. As much as I love Coney Island the hour train ride leaves a lot to be desired. Coney Island also tends to be pretty brutal weather wise. The South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan is in the city and quite actually right on the water giving you a nice breeze no matter how hot it is. As great as it was to have so many bands play at Siren I spent half the time running back and forth between the two stages. At 4Knots you could just hang out in one location and have a good view of the bands from anywhere.
The biggest 4Knots improvement had to be the VIP area. I know it’s sort of unfair to talk about that considering most people at the fest didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy it but at Siren the VIP area was a little tent with one open bar that people had to wait 30 minutes to get their drinks. At 4Knots the VIP area was an entire fucking pirate ship with a much bigger bar space and short lines all day. Plus you could actually see the bands instead of being behind the stage like at Siren.
Whatever the case I loved Siren Fest and I think if 4Knots becomes a yearly tradition I am going to enjoy it just as much and I am pretty sure NYC is going to feel the same way.
Anyway, before I get to the pictures I should point out that I was pretty sick on Saturday so I didn’t get to the South Street Seaport until about 5pm. I also was hired by the Voice just to shoot crowd shots so there aren’t really any photos of the bands. There are also shots in here at the beginning and the end of the gallery from the indoor lounge that featured DJ’s until midnight. I’ll stop talking now. Enjoy the pictures.
