When the Wall Tour Pig Got Tangled at Nassau Coliseum

During Pink Floyd’s 1980 The Wall tour, the giant inflatable pig was already a beloved stage prop—a holdover from the Animals era. At Nassau Coliseum on February 27, 1980, the pig rose as usual, but its tether lines snagged on overhead lighting rigging. Instead of floating majestically above the crowd, it dangled helplessly, half-deflated, looking more like a stuck balloon than a political symbol.

The stage crew couldn’t lower it without disrupting the show, so they improvised. A stagehand climbed a ladder during a dark transition in “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” and manually cut the pig free. It dropped onto the empty stage, and the crew quickly dragged it off before the next song began. The audience barely noticed—the song’s disco beat and the blinding light show covered the chaos. The pig was repaired and flew again the next night, but the image of a roadie wrestling a giant plastic pig offstage remains one of the tour’s funnier unscripted moments.