On July 15,1989, Pink Floyd performed for more than 200,000 people in the romantic setting of Venice at a concert that was described by press as a “Night of Wonders.” Framed in the foreground by the city’s famous twin columns of its patrons — St. Mark the Evangelist and St. Theodore of Amasea — and in the background by Andrea Palladio’s San Giorgio Maggiore, the band performed from a floating platform in the middle of the Venetian lagoon.
The assembled crowds filled every inch of St. Mark’s Square, the adjoining Piazzetta, and waterfront Riva degli Schiavoni, and even jostled for a front row seat in an ever-growing flotilla of boats moored within the lagoon.
The setlist for the show mixed songs from the band's then current album A Momentary Lapse of Reason with classic Pink Floyd concert staples including “Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Part I,” “Time,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Run Like Hell” and “Comfortably Numb.”
