By David Topping

Jacob Hoggard’s tweets on Friday night.

When the power clicked off around downtown on Friday night just after 10 p.m., Jacob Hoggard, lead singer of Hedley, was dancing across a brightly lit stage in the middle of the intersection at Queen Street West and John Street, doing a soundcheck for this Sunday’s MuchMusic Video Awards. Tasha Kinnear, there to watch, tells Torontoist that Hoggard “was dancing…and tripped on a wire.” The power on city blocks surrounding Much’s building went off instantaneously.

Hoggard (above) and fans (below) quickly took to Twitter:

Reached for comment just after 11 p.m. on Friday, Toronto Hydro spokesperson Tanya Bruckmueller told Torontoist that the cause of the blackout—which extended from Spadina Avenue to Yonge Street, and Dundas Street to Queens Quay—”is unknown at this time”; she wouldn’t speculate any further.
In spite of some hopes otherwise, though, Hoggard’s clumsiness and Much’s annual hog are most likely not to blame for the outage that coincided with it. In a statement issued to Torontoist on Saturday morning, MuchMusic’s Director of Operations, Neil Staite, maintained that Much “had no effect on the power outage. We monitor power very carefully and log usage at MuchMusic HQ. When the power failure occurred we were drawing 2.1 megawatts from hydro. Our normal draw is 3.0 megawatts. Any additional power required for the MMVAs is provided by generators.” Indeed, on Friday night those generators also meant that Much property was a lone pocket of bright light surrounded by darkness—manifest proof that, for better or worse, their show always goes on.