District 5's Tyler Shapard and Dayne deHaven Light Twenty One Pilots with CHAUVET Professional

	"We wanted to light the crowd evenly so that everyone could see each other and feel like a part of the show," Shapard explains.

On October 17, Twenty One Pilots played a homecoming concert at Ohio State's historic "horseshoe" stadium. The three-hour set was designed by Tyler Shapard and Dayne deHaven of District 5, featuring 510 4Wall Entertainment-supplied CHAUVET Professional fixtures spread out across a 75'-wide by 48'-deep main stage, as well as two side stages, plus delays.

Collaborating with the designers were Trenton Varnell, who helped program and operate the show, including many of the songs, plus all of the wristband looks. Also making key contributions were Nick Arnold (NXFX), the special effects programmer/designer, as well as Chris Shrom, Brian Luftig, Dan McDonough, Spencer Fecho, and Noah Abrams from 4Wall.

Carefully calibrated audience lighting, well-timed blackouts, artfully layered lights, and smoothly flowing color changes, along with dynamic video content flowed seamlessly with the band over the three-hour show.

The rig featured 165 Color STRIKE Ms, 118 STRIKE Array 4 blinders, 68 Maverick MK3 Washes, and 56 Rogue Outcast 2X BeamWashes.

"We wanted to light the crowd evenly so that everyone could see each other and feel like a part of the show," Shapard explains. "This has always been very important to the band because the audience is what makes each show special. Being able to push up a fader and bring everyone together is a huge part of that. As the band likes to say, 'We're Twenty One Pilots and so are you.'"

"We used a few things to make that happen," adds deHaven. "The Color STRIKE Ms were our backbone strobes, providing both colored crowd light and powerful strobes for big moments. The STRIKE Array 2s and STRIKE Array 4s were used for crowd blinders on the stage truss, imagine wings, and delay towers. We also had IP-rated Outcast 2X Washes on the wings and delay towers, paired with MK3s and other fixtures on the main stage, the B Stage and the C Stage."

The concert's dramatic video displays featured content created by Mark Eshleman (band creative director from Reel Bear Media), Chris Schoenman (video content creator) and Nathan "Barney" Barnier (D3 programmer).

The show featured strategically timed blackouts. "We love a good well-timed blackout, either in the middle of a song or between songs," says Shapard. "Many of these songs were stitched together throughout the three-hour set, so when there were defined breaks between songs we took the opportunity to turn everything off and give the audience's eyes time to reset before going into the next part of the set."

Another design feature that unified the crowd was the way the District 5 design team framed the stage with light from their Color STRIKE Ms. "We wanted to make sure the audience could feel the dimensions of the stage from everywhere in the stadium," notes deHaven.

In keeping with the show's grand scale, the famed Ohio State Marching Band joined Twenty One Pilots on stage. "We were ecstatic to bring the drumline on stage," says deHaven. "We especially liked being able to layer them throughout the stage, while still framing them."

Backlighting and uplighting were essential in making all the performers stand out on the stage. The rig's 14 STRIKE Array 2Cs and 29 COLORado PXL Curve 12 motorized battens contributed to the uplighting and backlighting.

Throughout the concert, the District 5 team conjured a rich variety of colors, many created via the rig's Maverick MK3 Wash and Rogue Outcast 2X Wash fixtures.

"We took great care in what colors we chose for each moment of the show, especially songs that are heavy lore-based," says deHaven. "Anyone familiar with this band knows that yellow and red are not just colors; they each have a much deeper meaning. We took great care to make sure that every song, every color palette, is tailored to convey exactly the emotion it is meant to convey and tell the story the band is trying to tell."

In addition to 4Wall, other vendors included NightHawk (video), Claire (sound), Strictly FX (SFX), All Access (staging), and Upstaging (trucking). "This effort involved a great effort by a lot of people," says Shapard.