Eeyore's Birthday Party 2010 The Birthday Banner

Eeyore's Birthday Party 2008 Donkey of Liberty

Eeyore's Birthday Party is a day-long

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

taking place annually in

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

since 1963. It typically occurs on the last Saturday of April in Austin's Pease District Park.Sexton, Scott
Eeyore's Birthday Party
. Retrieved March 4, 2006. It includes live music, food and drink vending which benefit local

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

s, attendees in colorful

costumes Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people. The term also was tradition ...

, and very large

drum circle A drum circle is any group of people playing (usually) hand-drums and percussion in a circle. They are distinct from a drumming group or troupe in that the drum circle is an end in itself rather than preparation for a performance. They can range ...

s. The event is frequented by children and families, with specific events presented for them by the event organizers. The festival is named in honor of

Eeyore Eeyore ( ) is a fictional character in the ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' books by A. A. Milne. He is generally characterized as a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old grey stuffed donkey who is a friend of the title character, Winnie-the-P ...

, a character in A. A. Milne's

Winnie-the-Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character w ...

stories.Rossi, Victoria.
Celebrating Eeyore: Young and old gather for traditional tribute to fictional character
". (May 2, 2005). ''

The Daily Texan ''The Daily Texan'' is the student newspaper of University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas at Austin. It is one of the largest college newspapers in the United States, with a daily circulation of roughly 12,000 during the fall and spri ...

''. Retrieved January 18, 2006.

History

Sculpture of Eeyore at Eastwoods Park in Austin, TX

Eeyore's Birthday Party began in 1963 as a spring party and picnic before the beginning of ‘

dead week Dead week, or hell week, is US slang for the week before college and university final examinations. The week is often characterized by heightened test anxiety, students working to overcome procrastination, procrastinating their test preparation or ...

’, hosted by Plan II students and faculty, and first led by Lloyd Birdwell, an English graduate student at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. It was named for

, a chronically depressed

donkey The domestic donkey is a hoofed mammal in the family Equidae, the same family as the horse. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a ...

in A. A. Milne's

stories who, in one story, believes his friends have forgotten his

birthday A birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person, or figuratively of an institution. Birthdays of people are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with birthday gifts, birthday cards, a birthday party, or a rite of passage. Many relig ...

only to discover they have planned a surprise party for him. Milne, A. A. ''

'' (1926). New York: Dutton Juvenile Press. . Despite its name, the event does not fall on the official birthday of the fictional character.Topher
Winnie-the-Pooh FAQ
. Retrieved January 18, 2006. The original event featured a trashcan full of lemonade, beer, honey sandwiches, a live, flower-draped donkey, and a

may pole A maypole is a tall wooden pole erected as a part of various European folk festivals, around which a maypole dance often takes place. The festivals may occur on 1 May or Pentecost (Whitsun), although in some countries it is instead erected at ...

(in keeping with the event's proximity to

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. T ...

).Ramirez, Elena
Eeyore's Birthday
. ''Austin Now''. Retrieved January 18, 2006. For many years the party was a UT tradition, but subsequently the annual Birthday Party became a tradition in Austin's

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

. When the festival moved from Eastwoods Park to Pease District Park in 1974, Austin-area non-profit

Friends of the Forest Foundation ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...

, an organization which distributes funds to other area

charities A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a cha ...

, began arranging for food and drink vendors at the festival. In the early 80s, the University YMCA took over production of the event, initiating adult beverage sponsorships and creating the child and adult costume contests, the first aid booth, the kiddie area, and many more features still happening at the event. By the mid-1980s, the Friends of the Forest had assumed primary production responsibilities such as arranging public services (toilets, buses, security, medics) and scheduling live music and family-oriented games and contests. The event is still known to most as a festival oriented towards modern

hippies A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

. It now boasts an annual attendance in the thousands. 2020 was held online, as officials scrapped the physical party due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Contemporary

What started as a small picnic for University of Texas at Austin students has today swelled to a major annual festival with live bands, non-profit vendors of food, drink and local beers, as well as a children's area complete with arts and crafts and carnival games, family-oriented games and contests such as

costume Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people. The term also was tradition ...

contests, and an

egg toss Egg tossing or egg throwing is a game associated with Easter. Various types of such games exist, common ones involve throwing an egg so that it lands on the ground without breaking. Such a contest may be known as an egg toss. The egg was a symbo ...

. Attendance at the Birthday Party is free. Weather-permitting, it occurs on the last Saturday in April in Pease District Park; a rain date is scheduled for the following weekend. Bright and diverse costumes are common. In keeping with the original traditions of the event, a live donkey and a may pole are always present. The event begins in the late morning and continues until dusk. Food and drinks are sold onsite by local Austin 501c-3 non-profit groups. Purified water is available onsite for participants to fill their own containers. Due to the lack of parking in the area and the high attendance, the Friends of the Forest Foundation provides festive shuttle buses between state parking lots just north of the capitol building and

Pease Park Pease Park (officially Pease District Park) is an urban park in central Austin, Texas. Paralleling Shoal Creek west of downtown, the park is frequented by University of Texas at Austin and Long-View Micro School students and, formerly, by disc g ...

. Singing of folk and road trip songs is encouraged on the short bus ride. Eeyore's Birthday Party is attended by people from a wide variety of backgrounds and ages, some of whom may have been attending for decades. Austin's hippie community still puts in a major appearance at the event, which they celebrate by forming large

drum circles The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

which can sometimes contain hundreds of drummers and dancers in the large areas of the park not occupied by other events. Members of the Deaf community like the drum circles because they can feel the vibrations. As of 2008, the event has also spread to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Cal Anderson Park Cal Anderson Park is a public park on Seattle, Washington (state), Washington's Capitol Hill, Seattle, Capitol Hill that includes Lincoln Reservoir and Bobby Morris Playfield. Features The north end of the open park features ''Waterworks (Hollis ...

as an annual celebration.

References

External links

Eeyore's Birthday Party official homepage

Eeyore's 2010 photos on Austinist.com
{{Winnie-the-Pooh 1963 establishments in Texas Festivals in Austin, Texas Recurring events established in 1963 April events