Mike Haggith stole the show at last year's Rotaryfest, but not in the way he planned.
After performing on the festival's main stage alongside his band for around eight minutes, disaster struck when the musician put too much weight on his right leg while pivoting, resulting in a dislocated knee.
While Haggith continued to entertain the crowd, playing the guitar flat on his back waiting for an ambulance to arrive, this freak accident left him in excruciating pain and a profound mental funk.
This wasn't just another gig for Haggith, after all, since he was using the Rotaryfest stage to launch a new album that he had been working on for three years.
"I felt like I let everybody down," Haggith said in a recent interview with The Sault Star, mentioning all the people who helped put the album and the Rotaryfest show together.
"I let myself down. I don't think I've ever felt so powerless on stage before."
Despite this harrowing experience, the 32-year-old musician is gearing up for a grand return to Rotaryfest this week, this time with a broadened perspective on how to mentally and physically deal with the obstacles life throws at you.
The first major hurdle that Haggith had to overcome following last year's accident was obviously the dislocated knee.
After undergoing an examination that confirmed he didn't sustain a fracture or ligament tear, Haggith assessed his options for physical rehabilitation in his home community of Barrie, Ont.
Haggith told his physiotherapist up front that he didn't want to miss performing at the Northern Vibe Festival, which was taking place east of Sault Ste. Marie in late August.
"So for the next month, with that goal in mind, I would just get up every day and do my physio exercises twice as hard. I would do twice as many reps," he said.
"They said, 'Don't push it,' but I was stubborn. I had a goal and I worked toward it."
Haggith ultimately made it to the Northern Vibe stage last summer, although he admits that his knee was only around 50 to 60 per cent recovered by that point.
Throughout the remainder of the year, Haggith dedicated a lot of time and energy into regaining the full functionality of his right knee, although he's trying to make peace with the fact that it may never be the same again.
"I've worked really hard with my physio and my rehabilitation. I'm prioritizing my health more and I'm trying to lose weight," he said.
"Even still, that knee is only about 90 per cent and the likelihood is it's never going to be 100 again."
Luckily, this uneven road to recovery hasn't dampened Haggith's love for music.
Haggith started recording his own original songs when he was 13 and has been releasing a steady output of tunes ever since.
According to the official website for Morningstar Records, an indie label that Haggith launched in May 2023, his discography currently consists of 52 full-length albums, although any music produced before 2011 isn't available for distribution.
As an adult, Haggith eventually settled into a distinctive alt rock sound, which he likens to the Foo Fighters or The Killers if they emerged in the 1980s.
During his time living in the Sault from 2010 to 2017, Haggith made his mark as a live performer, serving as a bassist, guitarist and vocalist for local rock groups like The Din.
After moving to northern Manitoba to pursue his career as a pilot, Haggith decided to shift gears artistically and produce albums as a matured solo act.
This pivot resulted in two projects released a year apart: If Ever Comes The Day (2020) and Bridges (2021).
While Haggith had been working on Bridges since 2018, and experienced several lengthy delays getting it out the door, the album's focus on themes like isolation and mental health hit even harder after enduring the COVID-19 pandemic for a year-and-a-half.
“All of my writing comes from personal experience and hardship, triumph or whatever it is, so since this record was written I’ve kind of experienced a lot," Haggith told The Thompson Citizen following the album's release.
"I’ve had a lot of highs, a lot of lows and those are all going to get written about. Basically my whole life story, when it’s said and done, will just be told through my albums, through music.”
This philosophy continued to guide Haggith through the production of his next album, All The Best In All You Do, which was meant to serve as a "testament to the spirit of resilience."
Haggith put that sentiment to the ultimate test following his on-stage accident last summer, eventually opting to embrace this public mishap rather than pretend like it never happened.
Outside of joking about the injury during subsequent public performances, Haggith is making footage of his accident and recovery a key part of the electronic press kits he sends out to book festival gigs, with his return performance to Rotaryfest this week serving as the final piece of the puzzle.
"This is just another way I can tell my story and another way I can hopefully connect with people and maybe inspire them to push through whatever super unfair thing happens to them," he told The Star.
"Because we've all been there, we've all experienced it, and we kind of have no choice but to get back up and keep swinging, right?"
For right now, Haggith is just looking forward to rocking in the Sault once again. The city remains his favourite place to perform given the strong network of friends and musicians he's cultivated over the past 14 years.
With these friends set to play at his side on July 19, Haggith feels like he has a decent "shot at redemption," proving that last year's mishap won't define the rest of his music career.
"This year we have a chance to go back and maybe I've got a little bit of a chip on my shoulder too. There's a wrong I have to right," he said.
"I have an incredible band, some of my best friends. We've put together a show this year that is absolutely killer. It's going to blow everybody's socks off and we're really looking forward to it."
Haggith and his band — consisting of Elly McWatters, Matt Fronzi, Chris Nielsen and Brandan Glew — are scheduled to perform at Rotaryfest's main stage on July 19 (starting at 5 p.m.).
Kyle Darbyson is based out of the Sault Star and is funded by the Local Journalism Initiative, which is made possible through funding from the Government of Canada