The giant helium-filled balloon pig floating during Roger
Waters’ set at the Coachella music festival in
The pig was lifted for all to see Sunday night, the third
and last day of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, during Roger
Waters’ performance of Pink Floyd’s “pigs,” from the 1977 album “Animals.”
Setting it free was not part of the plan, as festival spokeswoman
Marcee Rondan confessed to the Associated Press. "It wasn't really
supposed to happen that way. I don't have the details," she said.
The inflatable pig, with the height of a two-story house and
the width of two school buses, was also decorated with messages.
On one side, it displayed the words "Don't be led to
the slaughter" and a cartoon of Uncle Sam holding two bloody cleavers,
while on the other side it said "Fear builds walls." The underside
read "Obama" with a checked ballot box for Democratic presidential
hopeful Barack Obama.
Concert organizers offered a $10,000 reward for the pig's
return, and Tuesday, it looked like two couples had earned the reward by each
finding half of the pig. The sad remains of the hog were found in their yards,
a few miles from festival grounds in the
It remains unclear how the pig found its miserable demise.
The two couples who rescued the pig, or what remained of it anyway, will also receive four lifetime passes to future Coachella festivals and all-access passes for this weekend's Stagecoach country music festival, adds the Los Angeles Times.