Roger Waters‘ critically acclaimed farewell tour performance at Prague’s O2 Arena will reach global audiences through a theatrical release next month, as the Pink Floyd co-founder’s concert film This Is Not a Drill: Live from Prague The Movie debuts in cinemas worldwide from July 23. The film captures Waters’ May 25, 2023 performance in Prague, which was part of what he billed as his “first ever Farewell Tour.”
Trafalgar Releasing and Sony Music Vision will distribute the film globally, with tickets going on sale June 12 through the dedicated website rogerwaters.film. The theatrical release will be followed by home video formats on August 1, including 4-LP vinyl, Blu-ray, DVD, 2-CD and digital audio versions through Legacy Recordings, Sony Music Entertainment’s catalog division.
The film showcases Waters’ audiovisual spectacle that served as both musical performance and political statement, featuring 20 classic Pink Floyd and solo tracks including Us & Them, Comfortably Numb, Wish You Were Here and his new composition The Bar.
High-definition production captures farewell tour’s visual spectacle
Filmed in 8K resolution to provide exceptional detail and clarity, the movie presents an enhanced audio mix of Waters’ performance alongside his nine-piece band. The production team included longtime collaborator Sean Evans as director, capturing what Waters described as “a stunning indictment of the corporate dystopia in which we all struggle to survive.”
The concert featured Waters’ trademark elaborate staging, including the band’s iconic floating pigs, extensive lighting and laser displays, and politically charged visual elements. Performed at the 18,000-capacity O2 Arena in Prague, the show was designed as what Waters called “a groundbreaking new rock and roll/cinematic extravaganza.”
Waters was joined on stage by an ensemble of musicians including Jonathan Wilson, Dave Kilminster, Jon Carin, Gus Seyffert, Joey Waronker, Robert Walter, Shanay Johnson, Amanda Belair and Seamus Blake. The performance represented one of the final European dates of a tour that had been repeatedly delayed since its original 2020 planning due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Film preserves legacy of Pink Floyd founder’s final major tour
The Prague concert held particular significance as one of the concluding performances of Waters’ extensive touring career, which has spanned decades since his departure from Pink Floyd in the 1980s. At 79 years old during the Prague performance, Waters had been touring globally since 1999, bringing elaborate productions of Pink Floyd classics including The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon to international audiences.
The This Is Not a Drill tour represented Waters’ attempt to blend classic Pink Floyd material with contemporary political commentary, dedicating the show “to our brothers and sisters all over the world who are engaged in the existential battle for the soul of humanity.” The production combined musical nostalgia with urgent calls for environmental and social action.
Waters had previously performed in Prague multiple times, including presentations of The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon, making the Czech capital a familiar venue for his elaborate concert productions. The May 2023 performance was the second of two Prague dates, with the first show occurring on May 24.
The theatrical release provides audiences who missed the original live cinema broadcast in 2023 an opportunity to experience the full production on the big screen. The original live broadcast reached 1,500 cinemas worldwide, though the new edit directed by Evans offers a different perspective on the performance.
The accompanying music releases will preserve the complete Prague performance across multiple formats, allowing fans to experience the concert’s audio in various quality levels from digital streaming to high-definition Blu-ray and vinyl. Pre-orders for the August 1 music release are currently available through Sony Music’s Legacy Recordings division.
The film represents a capstone to Waters’ touring career, preserving his final major theatrical production for future audiences while documenting his continued relevance as both musician and political commentator more than four decades after Pink Floyd’s initial rise to international prominence.
