annual celebration<\/a>, which will be held on Saturday, April 25, at Pease Park, 1100 Kingsbury St.<\/p>\nSo what exactly is Eeyore\u2019s Birthday Party?<\/p>\n
Eeyore\u2019s party is a free community festival built around the gloomy Winnie-the-Pooh character whose friends famously decide not to let his birthday go unnoticed.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Jasper Murphy juggles five bowling pins while celebrating Eeyore’s Birthday on April 30 in Pease Park. The Austin tradition, hosted by the Friends of the Forest Foundation, returned last weekend for the first time since 2019. The tradition began in 1963 as a way for University of Texas students to relax before finals, and it has since grown into a parkwide party featuring music, food, activities and wild costumes.<\/p>\n
Sara Diggins\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Austin took that premise and turned it into something much bigger: a citywide spring ritual where people show up in fairy wings, body paint, glitter, flower crowns and whatever else feels right for a long afternoon under the trees. The event is run by the Friends of the Forest Foundation, a volunteer-led nonprofit, and organizers say all participating vendors are 501(c)(3) nonprofits.<\/p>\n
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Where did it come from?<\/p>\n
The tradition began in 1964, when UT student Lloyd Birdwell and others in an English class studying A.A. Milne decided to stage an end-of-semester party using Eeyore\u2019s birthday as the excuse.<\/p>\n
The first gathering was held in\u00a0Eastwoods Park near campus. It moved to Pease District Park in 1974, and when professor James Ayres stepped away from organizing it in 1979, the UT Young Men\u2019s Christian Association kept the Austin event alive. That shift also helped turn it into the nonprofit fundraiser it is today.<\/p>\n
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Why does Austin care so much about it?<\/p>\n
Eeyore\u2019s is not just another festival date on the calendar. It is an event that still feels distinctly local in a city that has spent years getting more polished, more expensive and more branded.<\/p>\n
![\"A]()
<\/p>\n
A drummer keeps the rhythm with the drum circle in the shade of the trees in Pease Park at Eeyore’s Birthday Party. The event, hosted by the Friends of the Forest Foundation, is a fundraiser for Central Texas nonprofit organizations.<\/p>\n
Sara Diggins\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Organizers describe it as one of the few remaining free Austin events without a big corporate sponsor, with proceeds going back to Central Texas\u00a0nonprofits. They say the party has donated more than $273,000 over the years and supported more than 80 nonprofit organizations.<\/p>\n
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What happens at the party now?<\/p>\n
The party has a little bit of everything. Organizers list a children\u2019s area with games and crafts from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., plus kids and adult costume contests, sack races, an egg toss, drum circles, food, drinks, face painting, a maypole and live music.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s music lineup runs from noon to 6 p.m. and includes The Fonts, Indoor Creature, J-Bone and the River Turtles, and Rob and the Nasty Beat.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Children play with bubble wands while celebrating at Eeyore’s Birthday Party.<\/p>\n
Sara Diggins\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n
The overall event starts at 11 a.m. Saturday. The city\u2019s event page lists it through 9 p.m., while organizers describe it as running until dusk, with a rain date of May 2.<\/p>\n
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How do you get there?<\/p>\n
Do not plan on parking at the park.<\/p>\n
Organizers say there is no parking available at Pease Park during the event, and the city warns that neighborhood no-parking restrictions are enforced.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Stacy Wheeler reaches down from high atop her stilts to give a youngster at Eeyore’s Birthday Party a high-five.<\/p>\n
Sara Diggins\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Free shuttle buses run from near the Texas Capitol, and organizers recommend parking in State Garages\u00a0E and J for easier access. The shuttles run about every 10 minutes. CapMetro, biking, walking and approved rideshare drop-off spots are also options.<\/p>\n
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What should people know before showing up?<\/p>\n
Organizers say no outside alcohol is allowed, and bottles, Styrofoam, tents and hammocks are restricted or prohibited.<\/p>\n
Dogs are allowed but must stay on a leash.<\/p>\n
Only non-amplified instruments are permitted, which helps preserve the anything-can-happen drum-circle feel.<\/p>\n
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IDs are required to buy or drink alcohol, and the city also notes that smoking, glass and Styrofoam are prohibited in Austin parks.<\/p>\n
Why it still feels like old Austin<\/p>\n
![\"Roses,]()
<\/p>\n
Roses, who did not want to give her full name, dances in the drum circle while wearing Eeyore ears during Eeyore’s Birthday Party in Pease Park on Saturday. “This is for the Eeyore in everyone,” she said. “We have to cheer ourselves up.”<\/p>\n
Sara Diggins\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Eeyore\u2019s\u00a0party has survived because it still offers something Austin residents worry they are losing. It is a big public gathering that feels homemade. It is weird, communal, a little unruly by design and rooted in the idea that a city can still come together just to be outside, act a little ridiculous and send money back into the local nonprofit world.<\/p>\n
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For many, it is a reminder of what Austin likes to believe it still is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A partygoer attempts to pin the tail on Eeyore. Though the party isn’t entirely about A.A. Milne’s donkey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-262955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}