One bucket, two sticks and a million followers: How five NZ teens hit drumming fame

Five teenagers from Tauranga perform tightly choreographed drumming routines using large orange plastic buckets held between their knees. Their videos show them switching stick strikes between their own bucket surfaces and their neighbors’ buckets, creating fast, clean, energetic, and flawless sound. Since uploading performances in March 2025, they have grown to more than a million social media followers and surpassed 100 million views. The group formed after meeting in school music classes and bonding over drumming on buckets, valuing the different tones and surfaces compared with regular drums. Their eye-catching setup has led to festival and event invitations and frequent fan requests for global talent contest appearances.

"Since they began uploading videos of their performances in March 2025, the group have amassed more than a million social media followers and clocked up more than 100m views. Fans regularly praise their clean drumming and urge them to appear in global talent contests. Increasingly they are being called upon to perform at festivals and events. The group of New Zealand teenagers finding fame with a few buckets and sticks - video"

"The scenes are laid-back but there is nothing casual about what comes next. The group launch into a tightly choreographed drumming routine sticks move at break-neck speed, flicking between the surfaces of their own bucket to that of their neighbours', producing a slick, energetic and flawless sound. They are the Beat Street Drummers a quintet of teenagers from Tauranga, a city on New Zealand's east coast who have catapulted to viral fame thanks to drumming out covers of global hits on NZ$10 (4.40) buckets from Mitre 10, a hardware store chain."

"The teenagers met in school music classes eight years ago and formed their existing group roughly five years ago, after discovering a shared enjoyment for drumming on buckets. We found out amongst ourselves that we are quite a good group playing on the buckets and we have that sort of dynamic it's like a brotherhood, Daniel says. Buckets have a different surface and tone to regular drums, which the group enjoy experimenting with. They are also eye-catching."

Read at www.theguardian.com