Celebrity plush influencer brings fans to Sheffield for city photo tour
Soft toy brings dozens of fans to the city
Sheffield’s famous lions trail was overrun with soft toys - after a celebrity plush toy hit the city with his fans.
Dozens of followers of the stuffed social media star Banjo Hootson headed into the city, bringing their soft toys with them, to pose for pictures at locations all across the city.
It had been organised for some of the cuddly orangutan plush’s 13,500 online followers, who follow his travels around the UK and further afield.
The fictional account is run by former Sheffield student Dan Skelton, who now lives in York.
Dan started taking pictures of a cuddly toy in various entertaining locations during lockdown, for friends. The whole thing went viral, and Dan decided to keep doing it when the world returned to normality after the pandemic was over.
And now Banjo has his own social media pages and a sizeable following, who enjoy his pictures from all around the world.
Dan, a computer software engineer, said: “We decided to all meet up in Sheffield because it was a really great place to meet, in a pretty central location.
“We followed the Lions trail and took lots of pictures around that, as well as visiting some of the local landmarks. It’s a great place to bring your plush! Everyone was very friendly, and a lot of people asked us about them.”
Many of the visitors at the event on Saturday made a weekend of it, staying in the city. The event was called Plushies In The City.
Dan originally did his lockdown pictures with a cuddly owl - but changed to Banjo when he realised he was better at posing for pictures. Banjo now has his own pages on both Instagram and Facebook.
He plans to hold another event next year, but it may not be in Sheffield in 2027.
The Pride of Yorkshire lions trail is raising money for the Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity, with 150 decorated life sized lions in locations across Sheffield and South Yorkshire.