The Tokyo Idol Festival 2015 Thread

[JFC]

TokyoGirlsUpdate.com - Basic Rules for Enjoying Tokyo Idol Festival Part1 : Be an Excellent Otaku
- http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/tif-tips-part1-20150752043.html


TokyoGirlsUpdate.com - Basic Rules for Enjoying Tokyo Idol Festival Part 2: Prepare for “Battle”!
- http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/tif-tips-part-2-20150752422.html

[wattstax]

Time Table for Greeting Area released. Now the scheduling starts again!

[Jul3]

This seems like a nice event the night before:

◼︎7月31日(金)

＠目黒鹿鳴館
¥前売り3000円（D別）

18:30〜少女閣下のインターナショナル
19:00〜君と僕、ときどきメランコリック
19:30〜プティパ
20:00〜絶叫する60度
20:30〜偶想Drop
21:00〜22:00 終演後物販

Kimi to Boku, Tokidoki Melancholic
Petit Pas
Zekkyou Suru 60-do
Guso Drop

[mixedmedia]

Also in Odaiba this weekend is the Odaiba Idol Festival.

http://odaibaif.xyz/

A bunch of underground/indies idols and free entry. Sounds risky.

Had Chu-Z ever been to Tokyo Idol Festival? If not, maybe it's because Maia was in Idoling!!! (and Vanilla Beans) and "graduated"?

That's true that you want room to stretch but sometimes it's too much. I think PASSPO would have been okay if it was at someplace slightly smaller like Akasaka Blitz. Kamen Joshi at SSA will be the end of the group! CD sales don't equal tickets sold because no matter how many someone buys they can only be in one seat at a time. I still need to see the Babyraids Budokan DVD. For comparison's sake, Silent Siren's Budokan concert a month later was sold out. But in most cases, the "capacity" of a place like that is if all the seats are filled and with most concerts, at least part of them are blocked off for the stage unless it's E-girls with the stage in the middle of the Budokan.

[tsutomo]

this is a REAL idol festival!  some very nice names there, like Feam, Re-2, Hyakka Ryouran, Station, +tic color, Meguriai, Namida... RioRio will appear in both festivals, because she is da boss. 

too bad that I planned my schedule in a way where I most likely won`t be able to go there. or even in Greeting Area, though saving some money is always a good thing. 

[Rezar]

I need to figure out how to rent an apartment here...

[JFC]

TokyoGirlsUpdate.com - Lucky 7 Idols for Tokyo Idol Festival 2015? Check it Yo!
- http://tokyogirlsupdate.com/tokyo-idol-festival-2015-watch-20150752985.html

[Rezar]

I don'twant to go home

[mixedmedia]

Looks like POP is done for the weekend. Their live and all other events were cancelled for Sunday. Seeing as the last place they performed was the Festival Stage (in front of Gundam), I'm gonna blame it on people being dumb. That's probably the worst stage because it's free and the people running it seem to be stricter than other stages (no jumping at all allowed).

Yurumerumo had their Festival Stage appearance stopped until the troublemaker admitted to doing something dangerous and left the area.

Some idiot Houkago Princess fans were shoving each other while lifted too but, aside from that, I didn't notice too much jackass behavior.

[tsutomo]

both POP and BiSH got expelled from the festival thanks to the bad behavior of their (mostly former BiS) fans. the 'trash wotas' strike again. 

no surprise for those that were there. I saw POP at Festival Stage and some guys were going crazy with moshing, lifting, diving, taking their clothes off... at the time I thought "wow! this was all said to be against the rules but the staffs are doing nothing...". well, appears they decided to take a bigger and more drastic action.  poor girls but the 'trash wotas' deserve it.

I`m actually surprised this level of bad behavior only went on during these two groups (otherwise there would be more groups expelled, I guess). like Passcode went safe from the 'trash wotas' actions? that`s a miracle! rofl


------------------------------------
on youtube there`s already SKE48 performance at Divercity


and Drop at Doll Factory (in two parts)


-------------------------------------
I won`t be able to go in the second day, so my views on the festival will be kinda limited... eitherway, judging from the first day: the organization finally improved in several areas, but still far from ideal. specially regarding Main Stage and Sky Stage entrance/humongous lanes. the wristband exchange was very confusing early in the day. even the fucking staffs didn`t know the purpose of each lane. still no maps/info signs in the area, but at least they placed a bigger number of food and drink stalls. bag checking and metal detection on the entrance of Divercity was purely for aesthetic purposes. pretty sure the detector was off, cuz I had a lot of metal parts with myself. I entered with a fucking glass bottle of vodka there, which wasn`t allowed according the rules. 

maybe it`s just my (wrong) impression, but apparently they had more staffs this year. and on the other hand, a smaller audience. though I admit that, with one more stage, it`s possible that the audience was in fact bigger but they were more spread around the area. I appreciated the "special" stages with girls from different groups singing together (previously it was basically always Idolling + someone) and the various collaborations between groups and food stalls. Idol College even had a campaign with the Lawson kombini. those were really nice and different to see, worth the train passage to go down there in Odaiba. 

[vlinorman]

Akishibu project any good? I don't know their music, but one of the girls I find incredibly cute.

[Rezar]

For a first time non Japanese visitor my impression is a bit mixed, first of all they are trying to push for more foreigners to visit they might consider more signs with English text and more than one of the staff that could understand English (I know most probably volunteers).

Also the stage names makes no sense, like the Festival Stage is not referred to as such ANYWHERE, most other stages have no signs either and you can only tell when you are already inside the venue like Heat Garage.

Unfortunately most of my plans the first day involved the outdoor stages and while it wasn't hotter than usual the sun was out and standing still in front of a stage with no shade available was horrible In fact during Muto Ayami I actually started to feel dizzy and had to leave to find some shade and sit down for a while but luckily I was ok after 10 mins.

Anyways now that I know where everything is I'm sure my second day will be much more enjoyable

EDIT: Just to clarify I DID have a good time despite my criticism.

[mixedmedia]

both POP and BiSH got expelled from the festival thanks to the bad behavior of their (mostly former BiS) fans. the 'trash wotas' strike again. 

no surprise for those that were there. I saw POP at Festival Stage and some guys were going crazy with moshing, lifting, diving, taking their clothes off... at the time I thought "wow! this was all said to be against the rules but the staffs are doing nothing...". well, appears they decided to take a bigger and more drastic action.  poor girls but the 'trash wotas' deserve it.

I`m actually surprised this level of bad behavior only went on during these two groups (otherwise there would be more groups expelled, I guess). like Passcode went safe from the 'trash wotas' actions? that`s a miracle! rofl

Saw and read how bad it was after posting. People were moshing pretty crazy to Tsubasa FLY at Festival Stage and throwing fake money into the air but I guess that wasn't as bad as BISH or POP. Not forgiving the trash wota but it did seem in some stages they were trying to encourage people to get excited but not actually do anything they would normally do. I guess since I'll have more time (didn't see either on Saturday) today, I'll maybe watch someone I've never seen before?

[wattstax]

Regarding the Budokan issue: I saw both Dempagumi and Babyraids on DVD, and if I didn't know better I would have said, both were sold out. So maybe really great camera work with Babyraids.

It is too bad with POP and BiSH. Just because of stupid fans. But QwiksXnd told me that PassCode should have met the same repercussion and I can tell that Tsubasa Fly and Bellring Girls Heart pretty much had the same fan behaviour. Btw the Smile Garden performances for PASSPO and Up Up Girls involved also stupid fans, throwing pen lights and water. Not as bad as last year though (still kept my glasses, lol).
For TIF itself? Why signs? They had a map on their website and it is not that difficult. The organisation improved a lot, much more staff, wristband exchange was easy, and yes, many food stalls and better planning with Greeting Area. Still they should put more shadow roofs on the site. Sky Stage I managed to go. As it was for the first show in the morning, the only issue was waiting in the line for 2 hours, until the entrance opens.
More thoughts later, my flight starts soon.

[Rezar]

I left early on the last day since I didn't feel that well. Aside from Passpo at 19'ish there really wasn't anything that I really wanted to see, so I left after Muto Ayami at around 16:00, when I got back to my hotel I felt worse and eventually my throat started hurt, I was cold but sweating despite the AC and had muscle pain, guess flu-like symptoms. QwiksXnd had told me about that as a possibility so I had been taking a lot of vitamin C but it seems like it didn't help, anyways it doesn't bother me too much since it's at the end of my trip so I'm not going to miss anything.

Overall I would say it was a great trip, it was nice to meet wattstax and learn how getting in to a concert worked (drink tickets, getting in line, numbers and such).

TIF wasn't really that great I must say I like the small clubs much more, the first concert I went to I would have to say was the highlight of my trip - it was a weird and wonderful lineup.

I plan on going again in late Oct./early Nov. depending on what concerts are announced :p

[vlinorman]

What would you estimate to be the female percentage in the audience?

10%, 20%, 30%?

[Rezar]

I didn't really pay that much attention, maybe like 10-15% a bit more than I've seen at normal concerts, probably because there were families with kids and such there as well.

[qwiksXnd]

TIF is a bad event for girls imo. The venues aren't set up to accommodate them and the rotations between group performances can get tedious depending upon how congested the stage is (and which fanbases are leaving and arriving). I was actually looking at the queues since I was stuck in a few and would guess attendance was 5-10% girls, definitely less than the typical idol concert I'd attend. I would assume TIF has a bad reputation with girl idol fans.

IDOL NATION was a perfect venue for all fans though and was 10, 20, dare I say 50 millions times funner than TIF. There weren't many people in attendance, but it was just fun as hell. Of course it helped that my favorite groups were performing and I had practically an entire row near the front to myself to jump around like an insane person

About Passcode, I think they should have been kicked the eff out. It was total BS to schedule them at Zepp right before GEM, Doll Elements, Prizzmy, and predia. Whoever made that scheduling was clearly trolling. I've seen passcode at two idol koushiens and they were behaving much worse at TIF. I think it was because passcode was performing at the biggest stage during a prime timeslot. If there was another TIF, I doubt they get invited back--assuming they still exist. Yeah, I'm bitter about that group atm

And the old man at the Festival Stage runs a tight ship lmao. He lectured GEM fans last year and we were hardly doing anything

Rezar, sorry to hear about that. My first time in Japan I caught some crazy virus and was sick for 3 weeks upon returning home. Since I never get sick I kept assuming it would just go away, but it never did. I finally went to the doctor, got antibiotics and was cured within 2 days--so don't hesitate seeing a doctor if it lingers. And sorry we weren't able to meet. I actually only randomly ran into tsutomo and wattstax, although I hung out with wattstax a few days before TIF. Also didn't see a few other overseas fans I wanted to say hi to.

bag checking and metal detection on the entrance of Divercity was purely for aesthetic purposes. pretty sure the detector was off, cuz I had a lot of metal parts with myself.

This . My belt buckle would make a metal detector explode and the guy just gives me a thumbs up without checking anything

[tsutomo]

you pretty much said the same thing I always say: TIF is fun, it has some "glamor" and all but there are other idol festivals out there A LOT better than TIF. since at TIF one can see some shows without ticket, I could see the appeal TIF has over first-timers, but to everyone else... I maintain my opinion that @Jam Expo (at the end of this month) is the best big idol festival out there, much more well organized and friendlier to the audience.

regarding the trash wotas problem, if they make another edition next year, I'll be very surprised to see one of these groups with bad reputation (deserved though) invited again. unless they are really desperate to have the most groups and idol fans possible. it's not like this started yesterday, they should be well aware of the implications that inviting these groups cause. one solution could be designating one stage only for these infamous groups, so their trash fans don't mess with other shows and stages.

[Rezar]

Rezar, sorry to hear about that. My first time in Japan I caught some crazy virus and was sick for 3 weeks upon returning home. Since I never get sick I kept assuming it would just go away, but it never did. I finally went to the doctor, got antibiotics and was cured within 2 days--so don't hesitate seeing a doctor if it lingers. And sorry we weren't able to meet. I actually only randomly ran into tsutomo and wattstax, although I hung out with wattstax a few days before TIF. Also didn't see a few other overseas fans I wanted to say hi to.

Not really sure what I have it might be the same thing wattstax got earlier than me, mainly sore throat so I basically can't speak - the muscle pain and cold-sweat was only the first day, also one of my ears didn't pop during my flights decent probably because I had hard time swallowing (because of the throat), hope it magically happens one of the next couple of days.

I think you and tsutomo are right about TIF and I'm kinda glad I didn't go just for that - every other thing during my trip was awesome though, unless there are some other awesome concerts around the same time as TIF I'll probably not go next year and I'll try one of the other big festivals instead.