COLUMBUS — The show is not until Saturday, Oct. 17, but Twenty One Pilots fans have already turned Columbus into a destination, arriving days early to visit the places where the hometown duo filmed its music videos.
The fans, known as the Skeleton Clique, are in town for a sold-out homecoming concert at Ohio Stadium, billed as the Pilots’ largest-ever headlining show. Guided by a list shared in a Facebook superfans group, they have been trickling into central Ohio businesses all week, stopping at video locations in and around the city and treating the trip like a vacation built around the band.
One of the busiest stops is Big Fun Columbus Vintage Toys at 672 N. High St. in the Short North, where the video for “Lavish” was filmed. Owner Jason Williams described the extra foot traffic as a positive commotion, with visitors in band shirts and hats asking about the shoot. He stocked extra shirts and merchandise in anticipation, and said the store may again limit how many people are inside at once.
Williams has reason to prepare. He said shoppers who came for the duo’s three-night stand at Nationwide Arena in 2024 gave the store its biggest sales in its 13-year history, and he expects a repeat this weekend. For a small Short North shop, a stadium homecoming a few miles away can mean the best business days of the year.
A few miles north, Lavash Cafe at 2985 N. High St. in Clintonville appears in the same video and shares a similar name. Co-owner Jamal Latif said calls, texts and messages from fans prompted him to post the cafe’s first-come, first-served reservation policy ahead of the weekend. Fans stop to photograph the outside, come in to eat, and, in Latif’s telling, treat a Columbus trip for the band almost like a pilgrimage to the sites in the videos.
Latif said earlier Pilots shows have drawn cafe patrons from around the globe, and his crew plans an all-hands-on-deck weekend in case the concert crowd overflows to Clintonville. In Galena, staff at Centerville Market on Center Village Road, a location from the “Backslide” video, reported a similar stream of curious visitors through the week, including fans from Spain and California asking about the filming.
For Columbus businesses, the pattern is familiar but growing: a single stadium show now sends thousands of visitors out across neighborhoods days before the first song, spending money in toy stores, cafes and markets far from the stage. Fans heading to Ohio Stadium on Saturday should also dress for a sharp cool-down after Friday’s rain, with a chilly, clear concert night expected — and they will not be hard to spot around town before then.