MORRISON, Colo.—The scene at Red Rocks Amphitheatre had all the hallmarks of an electronic dance music festival. Attendees wore holographic bodysuits, went wild when the beat dropped and occasionally spilled their drinks down their shirts.
But getting dressed required parental assistance, the bass pulsing off the sandstone was a techno remix of “The Wheels on the Bus,” and the drinks were apple juice and formula.
This rave was for toddlers.
At the center of the diapered frenzy, bouncing around on stage alongside a giant stack of inflatable rings, was Lenny Pearce. Covered in tattoos, his hair in a long white braid, the Australian DJ and former boy-band member looks more like an all-night raver than a children’s host. But he has turned his remixes of nursery rhymes into a global sensation.
Before the pandemic, Pearce, 35, was working shifts at a big-box retailer, his “Australia’s Got Talent” win in 2010 with pop-dance group Justice Crew long behind him. He was taking whatever DJ gigs he could get—weddings, birthdays and once a daycare center. And he was producing tracks for other artists, wondering if he would ever get his big break.
In 2022, Pearce and his wife had their first child together. At home, he was primarily listening to an endless loop of children’s songs. His daughter was often in a highchair in his music studio when his wife was working. What if he gave “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” a heavy techno beat?
“I wanted to play with her more, in my world.”
Within 24 hours of uploading his version to TikTok, it had hundreds of thousands of views. Major dance labels that Pearce had spent years pursuing reached out.
His reaction to his wife: “You’re joking me.” To Spinnin’ Records: “Yes!”
At first, Pearce didn’t see himself as a kids’ entertainer. “There was no existing blueprint for becoming a toddler techno DJ,” he said. He tested his remixes at a festival for adults in Hong Kong, dropping “If You’re Happy and You Know It” into standard sets to surprisingly raucous response.
But after his 2024 video of himself rocking out to his version of “The Wheels on the Bus” went viral, a promoter pitched him on headlining a series of morning family concerts. Australian dates sold out in days.
“I was like, ‘What is going on here?’” Pearce said. He decided to go all in on an under-5 audience, knowing he was really performing for the parents, too.
Testing sound mixes at home with his daughter, he learned to balance the heavy beat with clear vocal tracks and familiar melodies so toddlers could still recognize the song. He capped his sets at around an hour, realizing kids got tired if he went longer.
@lenjpearce Oopsie Kitty is the one 😎👌🏽 #superkitties #disneyjr #remix #rave #toddler ♬ original sound – Lenny Pearce
When he noticed spots that lagged, he added balloon drops and places to “quack like a duck” and “swim like a fish.” He also created characters like “Mr. Glow, the inventor of glow sticks.”
The crowds have gotten bigger. The Red Rocks concert was a sellout. Around a third of the 44 shows on Pearce’s upcoming tour in the U.S. and Canada are over 90% sold out, according to Pearce’s manager, who said about 70,000 out of the roughly 100,000 available tickets were sold.
Parents often come up to Pearce after shows saying they wish they had thought of the idea.
“This is brilliant,” said Joe Sever, 36, a medical sales representative who brought his son and twin daughters. “Why did we not think of this?”
For many of the parents, especially EDM enthusiasts, the concert was worth the price, even if their kids wouldn’t remember it.
“It’s as much for the parents as it is for the kids,” said Breezy Zappia, who paid $130 to attend a show with her husband, Giuseppe, and their son, Dominic. They plan to catch Pearce’s Los Angeles show in the fall, this time with friends who were envious after seeing Zappia’s Instagram posts.
Brooke Olshefski, a 35-year-old insurance account manager, dug a festival crop top out of her closet for the occasion. She drew the line at the matching mini skirt. “My husband was like, ‘Brooke, that might be too much.’”
By noon, the euphoria had faded. As Lenny left the stage, an exodus of crying babies, sugar-crashed toddlers and bleary-eyed parents trickled down the steep stairs.
In the middle of a crowded stair landing, 3-year-old Shai Yolles sat cross-legged, organizing his spent glow sticks.
“We are officially in the tired glow-stick zone,” said his father, Dan Yolles, a rabbinical student who also attended with his wife and 10-week-old daughter.
For the Yolles family, the concert was a gentle introduction to live music logic. When Shai demanded a replay of a Mickey Mouse remix—“again, again!”—his parents had to redirect him. “We were like, ‘That’s not how it works at a concert,’” Yolles said.
@lenjpearceWe’re gonna go BIG 🇦🇺 🇳🇿♬ original sound – Lenny Pearce
The shows are scheduled to end at naptime for Pearce’s family, too. After most of his shows, he returns to a tour bus packed with diapers, bottles and a stroller.
“At the end of the day, I’m just changing nappies, figuring out who has a fever and doing laundry.”
