AUSTIN, Texas — Eeyore's Birthday Party, named for the gloomy donkey in the Winnie the Pooh tales, is a community celebration of what makes the Capital City weird and fun. It’s the city’s longest running celebration of body paint, drum circles and outrageous costumes. In other words, it’s all things Austin and more.
This unusual festival of springtime and weirdness had modest beginnings in 1963 when a group of University of Texas students celebrated spring break in Eastwoods Park.
Back then, it was mostly about maypoles, sandwiches and beer. Attendance was by invitation only. Among the invitees one year was former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson and her daughter, Lynda, who were said to have had a great time.
Lloyd Birdwell came up with the idea for Eeyore's Birthday Party when he was a UT grad student 57 years ago. Birdwell, who passed away at age 70 in 2014, named the birthday bash to honor Eeyore, who – according to A.A. Milne’s stories – became saddened when he thought his friends had forgotten his birthday.
Today, an Eeyore sculpture stands in Austin’s Eastwoods Park with a plaque honoring Birdwell. The celebration moved to Pease Park in the 1970s.
As the counter-culture and hippie movement spread, things got a little more, well, relaxed. Do-it-yourself musicians popped up, and so did the drums – lots of drums.
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Austinites Tom and Marci Purcell have brought their kids to the party since they were very young. The kids are in college now.
“We’ve always enjoyed bringing our kids there,” Marci Purcell, who has been going to the party since 1992, said. “It’s all about the great hippie spirit of Austin’s past.”
Over the years, one thing has remained the same: Eeyore’s Birthday Party is non-commercial and all proceeds go to charity.
But this year, the annual event that’s held on the last Saturday of April has been canceled due to coronavirus.
“We’re so sad to learn it’s been canceled,” Purcell said. “But it’s definitely the right thing to do.”
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