「泡パ」や「スライドザシティ」「ランタンフィスト」など、数々の人気イベントを国内で仕掛けるパーティークリエイターのアフロマンスさん。トレードマークは大きくてふわふわの「アフロヘア」、会社名も「Afro&Co.（アフロ・アンド・コー）」と、SNS時代にふさわしくセルフブランディングに余念がない。実は前職が広告会社のプランナーだったという経歴からも、そうした巧さを感じさせなくもない。今回のキーパーソンインタビューでは、次々に新しいエンタテイメントを仕掛けるアフロマンスさんを迎え、もともと趣味だったというイベントを始めた経緯から、SNSで話題を呼ぶ新しいムーブメントのつくり方、さらに今後、渋谷を拠点に実現したい夢に至るまで、じっくりとお話しを聞きました。さっそく、アフロマンスさんの学生時代から振り返っていきましょう―――。

The outgoing pile is beaten, but if it goes past it will not be hit.

Did you start _ DJ since I was a student?

I think that it was about 2 years old at university. I always love music, I bought records, I do not do DJ but DJ booths are at home (lol). It was just a hip-hop boom around 2000. A lot of rap groups came out with the Zeebra (Gibra), BUDDHA BRAND (Butta brand), OZROSAURUS (Ozorosaurus), SOUL SCREAM (Seoul Scream) coming out and it got really exciting and the influenced generation is. However, just because I was longing, it was not that DJ knew something separately. The first was the opportunity to assist the cultural event "Kaito Fuuru", which Kyoto City conducts annually. After that, I got an exchange with DJ in Kyoto and pushed my back on "DJ booth, if there is one", I started turning at the club.

Is it also the same time you started organizing your own event?

The first thing I started was to do DJ for myself. "I'm sorry, I would like to DJ at that event ..." rather than asking me to do it, I guess it is faster to do it myself. In general, organizers do not want to go out so much, but in my case they appeared in a good time, despite the event organized, or they wanted to go out easily (laugh) ).

_ After graduation, why not become a DJ or an event as it is, why did you get a job in Tokyo?

When saying "Why did you choose an ad?", My grandpa is a painter, and may have been influenced from around the time it was small. I have drawn pictures and manga from long ago, when I was a junior high school student, I published doujinshi and sold it at the spot sale. It seems that junior high school students are selling booths among adults (laugh). When I was in high school I wanted to do a theater, write a screenplay and do it at the school festival .... Even since I entered college, there was no historically miscon in Kyoto University where I attended, and I was working with my colleagues, "Let's hold the first Misccon of Kyoto University!", But the strong opposition faction is Much more than a controversy. After that, motivation like 'Make something not right now' was very strong, including launching the free paper "Chot ☆ Better (Chot Better)" for Kyoto University students. Among me, whether it was an event or a video, they were just one of the means of expression and I did not want to focus on what I wanted to do with employment. There are various possibilities for advertisement. That is the occasion to make movies at work, there are things to make shops, that is why I felt the charm there.

Ah, you are really talented. By the way, is trademark Afroha from student days?

About 2 years from college. Originally when I entered college I was part of the American football club. When I wore stadium in the opening ceremony, I was recruited for haste. I did not dislike American football, but as it is a team that makes the students who entered by studying normally in Japan few years in Japan, it is everyday in American foot pickles. I thought that all of my student life would end with Ahmet, and quit in one year. Since I was a short hair until then, I tried to make my hairstyle free with my departure. It is a feeling that it finally settled down to Afro, scattered about the dread and cone low like about waist, knitting and so on.

It is surprising that it was _ the American football club. The transition from short hair is amazing, but what was your hairstyle when you were hungry?

I also went to work in Afro (lol) But when submitting a photograph of an employee ID card to join the company, I got scolded by the phone calling "Do you come with this afro and beard from spring?" There was no choice, I wore a short hair and shaved and I took out a picture. I hope to return to Afro one day suddenly after I joined the company and gradually lengthen my hair from around cold when the bloom has cooled down. Of course I think that it is not good if it is a bank clerk, but since it is a planning job in the advertising industry, nothing is said otherwise. Still, I got scolded with a feeling like ... ... like a newcomer, I was cocky in the first and second years after finding employment, but it also got out of the way. "The stake pile is struck", but "If it goes too far, you can not beat it." I was a planner, but the sales representative knows I'm such a guy, so I do not bring any hard deals. Rather, I brought only interesting projects where my dress would work positive, so the filter worked fine as a result and I was allowed to do whatever work I wanted.

In front of the DJ desk in the office. A small party with inner ring is said to do here too.

I have not given up yet, Slide the City in Dogenzaka.

_ The "Foam Party" in 2012 gathered a big topic, but was he still a company employee at that time?

I was doing "foam party" as a hobby outside of work hours. It is with everyone writing a blog. I have been doing various events for a long time and it seems that one of them, "Foam Party", was quite buzzed. At that time, it was a facebook account with an individual name, but if you announce it is done, it will be shared and it is about 20 thousand "is good!" I was surprised with the response of 3,500 participants to the space of 250 Harajuku capacities. After that, the "foam pa" grew bigger and bigger, and the company began entering the event that he wanted to do an event as well. When I made an event with advertisement promotion of a major company, it was posted on the top of Yahoo! news, and from the upper part of the company, a message like "This is you, I wonder how the flow of money is" Although I entered it, my mother set up a president's company and it was safe so I was ordering (laugh). Although it is not "the story of the pile that comes out" the previous time, I think that the upper part of the company would be crushed with difficulty if I do not like it, but I think that the activity providing the topic in the world is taken positively There seemed to have been overlooked.

_ Why did you start to set up a highly planning event like "Foam Paper"?

The state of "early morning festival" held for the first time in Shibuya 100 Banch in November 2017. Participants who dance and raise tension before commuting to work.

I am tired of "ordinary club events". I like music, I also like clubs, I also like the feeling of getting together and gathering at the event, but I also understand the feelings that people will not participate in the event at the same time. I will quit doing it. It thinks that there are various things, such as all-night tips, just listening to music and drinking it's boring. But, everyone is okay with karaoke, and I'm drinking in an izakaya until the first train. There will be something where clubs and music events will not be selected. With more free thinking, I have to change this. In the first place, thinking "Why should a DJ be a club?", Reserving a tram and playing a DJ party, doing a music event in a public bath or something. Also, if you say that all night is painful, open the "Early morning festival" that you can change your mind and dance healthily from the morning of weekdays. If everyone is getting bored, I am doing various kinds of events, thinking that if I cast one stone there, I think that it will change.

Besides the core business, the vitality that embodies the idea is amazing.

I think that's because it is a hobby. If you do not like business but do not like it while you are doing it, there will be no point in doing it in the first place. I thought that I would quit if I thought that there was no strike at that time, but I was lucky to have received various stimulus from the advertising company in the advertising company, so what if you bring a new method to the music event? As for the foam party, there were those who knew the foam party of Ibiza from that time. However, there was no one to do it in Japan. Tuna House is also a story just because there was no one who could match the music with the demolition show of tuna. If I stayed in a certain industry, I could not accept acceptance of new information, or I will shrink more and more as I have no idea. I think that spreading the DNA of a different culture at that time will spread a bit.

Participants who bubbles out one after another from a huge foam releasing machine and dances covered with whole body foam. Boasting high popularity as a club event that can be enjoyed by returning to a child's heart.

_ "Foam Party" is an event to be completed only in the club, so I think it is relatively easy to manage and operate. But when it comes to the scale of "Slide the City" in town, I think that it is not the risk that one event carries on a hobby, such as a place, a safety side, a cost, but it is quite a hard time to realize that Was there any?

Although I've done a variety of events, surely "Slide The City (slide the city)" is big enough to decide the scale and cost money. But at that time, I was not thinking too seriously, and it was a funny thing to do because it was interesting anyway. Because it is not an image skill or slide The city is already done by the Taylor who operates in the United States. Only then what to do to realize it in the country.

_ It is extremely positive. When you actually brought it from overseas, did you have a license agreement?

I have a contract with Taylor, an organizer of the United States. There is an interesting little story, but the timing when it became "to do this event" in the first place was when the movie "Slide the City" was busted on YouTube and フ ェ イ ス ブ ッ ク. So, Taylor had an offer from a major advertising agency in Japan and the media, but we were able to win the contract in the competition of such major companies. The reason is that the Taylor were also like us. It is not a strategic content of a big company, they are also doing the same as we do because we want to do, we are doing it on the stance of "It would be nice if it would be a business". Briefly, they are also ventures. "Well, I leave it to you," it was decided by Nori, but instead it was decided to hold events at five places at least for the year, or to deposit millions of yen by next week . Perhaps the major companies will not be able to pass the request before the next weekend because money will not be able to be transferred. In that respect, we think that it was great that we were able to make a decision quickly.

_ The lightness of such footwork has become the decisive factor. Indeed, initially there was a plan to do "slide the city" in the city of Shibuya, right?

I was thinking at Dogenosaka. I am planning to do it even now. I have not given up. At that time, I became "interesting" by talking with various stakeholders, but it did not come true. What is ultimately needed is a cause. A story that everyone can agree that "Why should I do in Shibuya?" Is necessary. Everyone wants to have fun if companies and the administration talk. I would like to do, "Would you like to do Slide The City? Speaking of real intention, I think that it is better not to do things by reason. I like something, something I want to do something is important, I do not need any reasons. As a means to realize something that is not such a reason, the logic is important and I think it is necessary. Do not reverse its master and slave.

"Slide The City" held for the first time in Odaiba in 2015. Popularity was rushing and saying that 10,000 tickets were immediately sold out.