This Saturday is the 58th anniversary of the party. To mark the occasion, KUT put down the turkey leg to bring you some little-known history about one of Austin's most popular festivals.
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In 1963, UT student Lloyd Birdwell, BA ’64, MA ’66, founded Eeyore’s Birthday Party to honor the grumpy donkey from A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories. An instant hit, the annual event quickly outgrew its original home of Eastwoods Park, eventually moving to Pease Park on the edge of West Campus in 1974.
UT photojournalism student Lisa Davis caught the event in all its glory in 1983. Originally featuring maypole dancing and beer chugging, Eeyore’s Birthday now represented the full gamut of Austin’s weird and wacky: body paint, drum circles, fancy dress, and, indeed, that famously malcontented donkey. Davis, BJ ’84, became a renowned local photographer, documenting the city’s political and cultural life with kinetic vigor. She died by suicide in 1995, but her photographic archive is preserved at the Austin History Center.