I think the loss of the Bagdad's big theater killed Hawthorne. It was the place you could almost always get in and cornerstoned the walkable Hawthorne fests of yesteryear. I hope they can pull it back together to make the flow between overlapping shows a bit better.
I agree that the needs to be concentrated in one area rather than two. I wish it could still be Hawthorne, since I live just a couple of blocks away, but even so, putting everything in inner SE would make it much more accessible. I ended up parked at the Alhambra and the Eagles for empty hours between shows a couple of times because there was no room in the other walkable venues. Also, a couple of times volunteers looked at me like I had a third arm when I wanted to go into a show that was nearly over, just to kill some wait time. The vibe was definitely off on Hawthorne this year.