Sam Fender has donated the entirety of his twenty-five thousand pound Mercury Prize cash to the Music Venues Trust, which functions to save the UK's independent music venues.
The star was presented with the award on 16 October as his new release People Watching was named the top album of the previous year.
The musician has decided to donate the funds to the trust, in acknowledgment of the essential function local spots fulfilled in his early career.
"I personally couldn't be pursuing my current career if it wasn't for all the performances I performed around the North East, and further afield, when I was beginning," stated Sam Fender. "These spaces are renowned, but they are struggling."
Since the start of 2023, at least 150 of these venues have ceased operations – roughly one-sixth of the whole industry in the UK.
Over the past year, major artists like Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to keep the scene afloat, by applying a modest fee to their admission fees, which benefits smaller concert halls.
Sam Fender also joined in, raising in excess of £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to help thirty-eight grassroots venues across the UK.
The donation supported spaces that were confronting imminent closure due to issues arising from water damage, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and sound issues.
Additional spaces received funding support in improving infrastructure and technical equipment that helped musicians and fans.
"The concept that money from performances in large arenas backs the local stages, where it all starts for musicians like me, is just sensible," Fender has said.
Fender is not the first artist to contribute his Mercury Prize prize money to good deeds.
In Pulp earned the award in the year 1996 for their record Different Class, lead singer Cocker announced that the group would donate their prize money to the charity War Child.
During 2002, musician she split her bounty among a few organizations, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"Additionally, I donated a thousand pounds to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics program, because I did gymnastics when I was a child and they needed updated gear," Ms Dynamite shared with the media.
Previously, Ezra Collective donated their prize money to the community center that developed their band, in addition to other grassroots music organisations.
Also 1994 winners M People contributed their award to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was diagnosed the disease.
"The victory was ample," said singer Heather Small. "The money was the cherry on top but we didn't need the cherry, because we had the cake. So our winning impacted another person's life."
Recently, the trust shared it had saved two small stages in south-east England, by transferring them to community ownership.
One venue in Southampton and The Croft in that location were acquired under the Own Our Venues program, which is funded by Arts Council England and supporters who buy "shares" in the venues.
