Tokyo Idol Festival 2011 Part 1

I didn't cover it last year, but this year's Tokyo Idol Festival is coming up soon! This is a festival for relatively indie idol groups that seem to be largely unknown by the public. And so, it's really exciting to see new girls and groups. The list came out a while back, so here's a quick primer (of what I can find) from the internet of these girls.

http://www.idolfes.com/2011/ Full list here.

Idoling!!!: This is AKB48 producer Akimoto Yasushi (AKA Aki-P)'s other project (EDIT: Apparently I'm an idiot and messed this up ><) This is Fuji TV's project to do a variety show done by idols. They've collaborated with AKB in the past for AKBIdoling, and as such I don't know if I'd quite consider them THAT indie. Regardless, they're cute and fun. I don't follow them much, but like I said in a previous post I do like Idoling!!! member Yazawa Erika. They have quite a few members and generations already, and have a good number of fans. Their main claim to fame, other than collaborating with AKB48, is their show Idoling!!! They're at the point where they aren't as popular as the AKB48-related groups, but are still really popular, at least compared to a lot of these other groups.

I LOVE this song too! So catchy!

iDol Street ストリート生: I know that they're by Avex, and are related in some way to Super*Girls, Avex's current idol project. They might be trainees? Idk, I just had trouble finding much about them, other than that they're related some how to Super Girls. So.. yeah. 

Afilia Saga East: These girls are an idol group based off of maid cafes, and one of their unique features are choosing anime-type names for themselves. I think I've heard of them before, but they haven't really made it big yet. But yeah, I don't know if they still work at maid cafes, but that's where the girls in the group come from. They're a bit tough to find on the internet, but they seem really cute so it'll be interesting to see them live.

NOTE FROM COMMENT BY SHURA:
Afilia Saga East girls still work in the Afilia cafe/restaurants... they are produced by Shikura Chiyomaru (5pb label executive producer) and Halko Momoi (epic idol legend) 
So there you  have it! They still work in the Afilia cafes, even though they're idols. That could be interesting if you're Japanese; it's kind of the ultimate idols you can meet experience!

Oh*Campee: Surprisingly enough I know these girls!!

They are SUPER indie; I don't think their one song, Happy Happy Birthday, has actually been released as a single or anything. The one place I know they've performed is at the Sanrio amusement park (one of the members blogged about it). As you can see, the video is very cheap and the group has a low budget, but the girls in the group seem like they're having fun in performing this. I think this is the one video of them that exists online (as far as I can find). I hope they're fun to see live! 

Cocolo Colon: This is a TERRIBLE name for an idol group. However, I looked up their Japanese wiki page, and it looks like they've been doing stuff since about 2005. They feature two members, Kaho and Erina; they at one point had another member named Miwa, I think, but she's since left.

It's hard to find too much about them right now, but they've released this song, Otome Gokoro as a single and have had a few albums. They actually performed at the  Tokyo Idol Festival last year, even though I must have missed this performance or it wasn't on the DVD. Still, they seem cute and this is a catchy song; don't know which one's which yet, but we'll see!

This is only the first 5 of the 31 listed groups for the festival, but I'll be trying to find out more about the rest of the groups in subsequent posts! Indie idols yay!