A Sleepless Night in Javalí Viejo
On the night stretching from Tuesday, October 7 to Wednesday, October 8, 2025, the peaceful town of Javalí Viejo in the province of Murcia, Spain, found itself wide awake for all the wrong reasons. The culprit? The school’s loudspeakers. According to El Diario, they played “Happy Birthday” on a loop for a whopping five hours. Not even the parents of triplets need to endure that much serenading in one night.
The Nighttime Chorus Nobody Wanted
The sound fest kicked off around 11:00 p.m., just as most people were probably drifting off—or were about to—only to keep going until 4:00 a.m. The relentless loop proved too much, and the exhausted locals eventually called in emergency services to put an end to what had quickly become a living nightmare. Firefighters arrived on the scene in the middle of the night, entered the school, and managed to cut the power to the speakers, finally restoring silence to the neighborhood.
Firefighters to the Rescue (and with a Sense of Humor)
A video of the intervention was posted on the Murcia fire department’s X account (formerly known as Twitter). In the footage, you can see one of the firefighters—ladder in hand—making his way toward a speaker to finally turn the music off. The crew accompanied the video with a playful caption:
“We didn’t want to ruin anyone’s birthday, but… this was not the time!”
At least someone managed to keep their spirits up!
A Brief Ordeal Compared to Other Noise Nightmares
Fortunately for the residents of Javalí Viejo, their musical marathon “only” lasted a few hours. To put things in perspective, just last spring in Cannes, on the French Riviera, things were a lot worse for those living in the La Bocca neighborhood. There, locals had to endure the never-ending wail of an alarm for nineteen days straight. The siren first went off on May 15. Despite several visits from local police, the source of the noise remained as elusive as sleep itself, before the alarm suddenly—and mysteriously—fell silent on June 2.
The moral of the story? It could always be worse… but here’s hoping the people of Javalí Viejo get nothing but silence—and maybe just a gentle “Happy Birthday” at a more reasonable hour—from now on.
John is a curious mind who loves to write about diverse topics. Passionate about sharing his thoughts and perspectives, he enjoys sparking conversations and encouraging discovery. For him, every subject is an invitation to discuss and learn.
