Photo by Craig Busch
About Us
“I’m happy to be a part of something that makes Austin the kind of a place that I want to live.” – Capt. Scott H. Sexton
History of Eeyore’s Birthday
Before Austin was a tech hub, it was a hippie haven, and over several decades the city’s crunchiest residents made Eeyore’s Birthday Party a high holy day on the bohemian calendar. Every spring, thousands of fans of A. A. Milne’s chronically gloomy donkey gather in their brightest costumes to cheer everybody up. 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.
Austin’s spring fling is also a celebration of one of the city’s oldest and most beloved green spaces, Pease District Park. After a two-year pandemic pause, Eeyore’s bash returned in 2022, the first major event at the park since it underwent a partial renovation. If anything, the park’s only gotten weirder — now it boasts a treehouse that looks like a giant Star Wars prop. (from the weekly Bloomberg CityLab series)
Friends of the Forest are the Lorax of Pease Park and stewards of the event, a non-profit collective of people who steward the uniquely Austin event known as Eeyore’s Birthday Party. Eeyore’s was one of the early virals before the Internet. No advertising.
Lloyd Birdwell was a student in a UT English class in the spring of 1964. The class had studied AA Milne (author of Winne the Pooh) and decided that an end-of-the-year party was in order so Lloyd and a group in the class organized the party choosing a birthday for Eeyore as the theme (excuse) for the party. It was in Eastwoods Park (just north of the university) and remained there until the party moved to Pease Park for the 1974 party. The students organized the party with English professor Ayres as the faculty sponsor.
In the spring of 1979, Professor Ayres decided he was no longer interested in having the party in Austin as he had acquired land in Round Top and was holding a smaller party there. He canceled the event in Austin.
However, the Young Men’s Christian Association of the University of Texas at Austin (UTYMCA) stepped in to continue the party in Austin, which had become a beloved Austin event. At that point, it became a nonprofit fundraiser. A small group of talented individuals stepped up, and the party was saved. The UTYMCA is now known as the Friends of the Forest.
Our Volunteers and Non-Profit Work
Eeyore’s is a free admission event and has come to embody the free spirit of the Texas oasis called Austin. Area nonprofits sell a variety of food products staffed by their volunteers. About 1,300 volunteers give their time to the Friends of the Forest on the day of the event. This is an excellent opportunity to volunteer and get to know and appreciate Pease District Park and your neighbors.
The community fills all the volunteer positions and fiercely defends and supports this uniquely Austin event. It’s Austin’s chance to give back to Austin nonprofits in a painless way. Thousands of volunteer hours over the years – ragweed; planting and caring for new trees; trail work, and more. Day of affordable fun; all proceeds go to local non-profits. All food vendors are non-profits, and it’s the only major event left in Austin that isn’t run through a corporate sponsorship. The only people making money in the park are the city-required paid security personnel. For many, this is their largest fundraising event of the year. A uniquely Austin event, we focus on keeping our money in Austin by selling beer purchased from local breweries.
