The Chaparral

Issue date: 5/12/08 Section: Entertainment

When pigs fly: The pig ascends over the crowd at the Coachella Fest. Photo courtesy of Google Images.

It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's a giant inflatable pig!

The remnants of an inflatable pig the size of a school bus drifted into the yards of two La Quinta properties on Tuesday, April 29. The pig earned La Quinta residents Susan and Steve Stoltz and Judy and Patrick Rimmer a cool $10,000 for their discovery.

The pig disappeared on April 27, the last night of Coachella Fest, during Pink Floyd's performance of "Pigs" from their 1977 album, Animals. It was not recovered until the following Tuesday, when pieces of the pig were found scattered in the neighboring yards of a La Quinta neighborhood.

Susan Stoltz did not recognize what the plastic remains in her driveway were until she opened up the Desert Sun and saw a picture of the balloon. About 100 yards away, another La Quinta resident, Judy Rimmer, found more pieces of the pig draped over her plants.

According to the Associated Press, Bill Fold of Goldenvoice Promotions inspected the swine in Stoltz's driveway that Tuesday. "That's definitely our pig," he said.

The Stoltz and Rimmers have reportedly split the $10,000 reward and donated it to several local childrens' music programs. Each family has received a lifetime supply of tickets to the Coachella Fest, as well as tickets to the threeday Stagecoach event which was held May 2-4.

As for the plastic porker, Goldenvoice Promotions has salvaged the pieces as a memento of Roger Waters', the former lead singer of Pink Floyd, performance.

Marcee Rondan, Goldenvoice's senior vice president, told the Press Enterprise, "This pig is a big part of Coachella history. We wanted to keep it as sort of a milestone for Coachella."

The helium-filled pig reportedly had "Obama" spraypainted on its belly with a large check mark. The words, "Don't be led to the slaughter," were additionally sprawled across it in blue, black, and silver paint, alongside a sinister-looking picture of Uncle Sam.

The pig wasn't the only Coachella Fest blunder. Hundreds of pamphlets urging a vote for Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama were meant to be dropped upon thousands of concert-goers during the concert. However, the wind carried the fliers away from the concert and into the yards and pools of Indio residents.

Indio police spokesman Ben Guitron stated that Indio police received over 108 complaints about the fliers. They believe Waters may have been responsible for stunt. The Obama party denied association with the leaflet drop or pig graffiti.

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