Even in the rare moments of conflict in 2014, the music was playful. When pro-government antagonists entered the occupied areas and began haranguing the crowd, protesters would surround them and sing ‘Happy Birthday’, a practice that began thanks to a well-timed accident when one such antagonist in mid-tirade accidentally pressed a button on his megaphone, which triggered a grating electronic-beeped rendition of the song, prompting the surrounding crowd to sing along. The cheerful collective singing of that universally known song during such moments of conflict would serve both to drown out the attacks and to defuse a potentially violent situation with humour and absurdity.