Before it had a booming tech scene and a skyline full of towering buildings, Austin was a small college town full of weirdos. Yearly revelers intend to keep that spirit alive through one iconic, weird, hippie-forward event: Eeyore’s Birthday Party.
The party is held annually at Pease Park, and 2026 will be the event’s 61st iteration. Held on April 25 this year, Eeyore’s Birthday Party is free to attend, lasts all day, and includes drum circles, food, drinks, music, costumes, face painting, and so much more.
A Student Started the Party
Lloyd Birdwell was a student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1964 when his class studied the author behind Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne. To celebrate the end of that spring semester, Birdwell pitched a party to his fellow classmates and Eeyore’s Birthday Party was born. The first version of the party was held on May 8, 1964, at Eastwoods Neighborhood Park near campus.
Just 50 people attended that first party. But eventually the party needed a new space due to attendance and was moved to Pease Park in 1974.
“There really was no impetus for it, and I had never read ‘Winnie the Pooh,’” Birdwell told the Austin American-Statesman in 2011.
The Party Was Almost Done in 1979
To throw the first party, the students used English Professor James Ayres as a faculty sponsor. But more than 10 years later in 1979, Ayres said he didn’t want to hold the party in Austin anymore. He canceled the Austin event so it could be held on his newly acquired land in Round Top.
That’s when the Young Men’s Christian Association of The University of Texas at Austin stepped in and took over organizing the event. The YMCA of UT is now known as Friends of the Forest.
The party was actually canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic and returned in 2022.
Today, the Party Is a Bastion of Old Austin
Austin looks different all the time, but Eeyore’s Birthday Party still keeps that old and weird Austin flair.
“The Winnie-the-Pooh-themed bash is one of those reliably weird things about Austin that no amount of venture capital has managed to disrupt,” organizers say.
Eeryore's Birthday Party is 100% volunteer-run and all the vendors are nonprofits.
The party is often lauded as a chaotic tribute to spring complete with funky outfits, the feeling of freedom, and time with your neighbors.
