Sam Fender has donated the entirety of his twenty-five thousand pound Mercury Prize prize money to the trust for venues, which functions to save the UK's grassroots music venues.
The star was presented with the prize on October 16 as his third album People Watching was chosen as the top album of the past year.
He has chosen to hand the money over to the MVT, in acknowledgment of the crucial part grassroots venues fulfilled in his early career.
"As an artist couldn't be pursuing my current career if it hadn't been for all the shows I performed around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was beginning," said the artist. "These venues are iconic, but they are in difficulty."
Since the start of 2023, more than 150 of these venues have shut down – approximately one-sixth of the whole industry in the UK.
Over the past year, well-known musicians such as Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the Music Venues Trust in its initiatives to keep the scene afloat, by applying a minor surcharge to their admission fees, which benefits local stages.
Fender also participated, collecting more than £100,000 on his recent tour to help numerous local spots across England, Scotland, and Wales.
These funds helped venues that were dealing with potential shutdown due to challenges stemming from water damage, blazes and personal losses, as well as permit problems, court cases and neighbor objections.
Other venues obtained monetary aid in modernizing amenities and sound and lighting systems that directly benefitted performers and concertgoers.
"The concept that money from concerts in big venues supports the independent spots, where it kicks off for artists like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has said.
He is far from the only musician to donate his award prize money to good deeds.
When the band earned the trophy in the year 1996 for their record their work, frontman the singer declared that the band would give their winnings to the organization War Child.
During 2002, rapper and singer she split her prize among multiple charities, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"And I gave a £1,000 to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I practiced gymnastics when I was a child and they needed better apparatus," she explained to a publication.
Previously, Ezra Collective gave their funds to the local youth club that nurtured their group, in addition to other grassroots music organisations.
And 1994 winners the group donated their winnings to a MS organization after a acquaintance was identified with the condition.
"Receiving the award was quite enough," stated vocalist the singer. "The money was the cherry on top but we could do without the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our success touched somebody else's life."
Recently, the Music Venues Trust announced it had protected two small stages in that region, by bringing them into local control.
One venue in Southampton and the second in Bristol were bought under the community ownership scheme, which is funded by the arts council and supporters who buy "ownership units" in the properties.
