This DJ's Sold-Out Sets Cater to the Toddler Crowd

This DJ knows his audience—and that shows are best scheduled around nap time. The Wall Street Journal's Rachel Wolfe profiles Lenny Pearce, a 35-year-old former boy-band member and 2010 Australia's Got Talent winner who has reinvented himself as a venue-filling "toddler techno DJ," remixing nursery rhymes into EDM bangers for under-5s—and their concert-loving parents. Pearce stumbled into the niche after making beats in his home studio with his infant daughter as a captive audience; a remix of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" posted to TikTok racked up hundreds of thousands of views in just a day.

That virality led to interest from major dance labels and, in 2024, to a promoter who had the idea of morning family concerts. The Australia shows rapidly sold out. He'll tour the US and Canada this fall, and about 70,000 of the 100,000 tickets he has across 44 shows are already sold, reports the Journal. Wolfe details how the one-hour "baby raves" are well-considered: When Pearce "noticed spots that lagged, he added balloon drops and places to 'quack like a duck,'" she writes. Read the full story here.