Clubs / News
Is nine-year-old Betty Bristol’s youngest DJ?
A nine-year-old DJ has already won plaudits from Fatboy Slim and Eats Everything for her turntablism prowess.
DJ Sunshine, otherwise known as Betty Hales, recently played an outdoor set where Fatboy Slim and Eats Everything had been due to perform at a free party in October before police shut it down before it started.
Both superstar DJs have now praised Betty, with an Instagram reel of her set in front of Inkie’s mural of the pair being watched almost 22,000 times.
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“This is just fabulous. I love you,” wrote Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook, in response.
Eats Everything – real name Daniel Pearce – also reposted the video of Betty DJing underneath Brunel Way, saying it was “legendary!”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CkSiOtCs1ZX/
Betty takes her DJ moniker from her middle name, Sunshine. She lives in Old Sodbury and goes to Old Sodbury Primary School.
She has been DJing for around two years, having started on her dad Darren’s decks after watching Fatboy Slim’s daughter Nelly DJ online during the first lockdown.
When Betty’s teacher heard about her new skills, he asked her to do a set on Zoom for the class while they were remote learning.
She then streamed a set for the whole school every Friday afternoon and played an online set for each class for their Christmas party while year groups were still in bubbles.
“After that, we bought her a set of turntables of her own!” Darren said.
The DJing at the area known as Curbside came about after Betty’s parents found out about the Fatboy Slim and Eats Everything party and decided to attend, diverting from a planned trip to the Everyman cinema to the party’s rearranged location of Lakota in St Paul’s, which was halted after around an hour when dozens of partygoers tried to climb over a wall to get into the club’s carpark.
“After an hour in the rain – and being the oldest ones there by a couple of decades – we gave up on getting in,” Darren told Bristol24/7.
“The following day telling Betty, she thought it was brilliant and started talking about doing her own rave.
“Betty saw Eats Everything on the Downs last summer, and when she was only a few years old she went to a festival where Fatboy Slim was headlining, so these are her two favourite DJs.
“I said I’d take her to see the Inkie graffiti at the underpass during half term, and that’s when we had the idea to take her decks along and play some music.
“I posted the video of her doing this on Instagram and tagged Fatboy Slim and Eats Everything, but we had no idea they would repost it, send lovely comments and be watched over 20,000 times. Betty thinks it’s amazing!”
Main photo & video: Darren Hales
Read next:
- Police shut down unlicensed music event in disused building
- DJing from a rooftop in Windmill Hill
- Ravers climb over wall to get into free Fatboy Slim party
- Join the party celebrating Bristol’s South Asian DJs
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