Eeyore's Birthday Party

Eeyore's Birthday Party is a day-long festival taking place annually in Austin, Texas since 1963.

[1] It includes live music, food and drink vending which benefit local non-profit organizations, attendees in colorful costumes, and very large drum circles.

[2] Eeyore's Birthday Party began in 1963 as a spring party and picnic before the beginning of ‘dead week’, hosted by Plan II students and faculty, and first led by Lloyd Birdwell, an English graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin.

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.

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 contests, and an egg toss.

Weather-permitting, it occurs on the last Saturday in April in Pease District Park; a rain date is scheduled for the following weekend.

Eeyore's Birthday Party, 2010
And He Was Sad sculpture of Eeyore at Eastwoods Park in Austin, TX
The Eeyore of Liberty, a statue which combines the Statue of Liberty with Eeyore , frequently appears near the drum circles at this annual event.
A drum circle at the 2023 Eeyore's Birthday Party. Drum circles at the festival range in size from a handful of participants to circles with hundreds of drummers and dancers. Drummers bring a wide variety of instruments from hand drums to kettledrums .