Sam Fender has handed over the entirety of his twenty-five thousand pound award winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which operates to preserve the United Kingdom's grassroots music venues.
The star was given the award on mid-October as his third album People Watching was named the outstanding release of the last 12 months.
He has chosen to donate the funds to the Music Venues Trust, in acknowledgment of the vital role local spots had in his initial steps.
"I would not have achieved what I am doing today if it hadn't been for all the shows I performed around the region, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," remarked the artist. "These venues are legendary, but they are facing challenges."
Since the start of 2023, over 150 of these venues have permanently closed – approximately 16 percent of the whole industry in the UK.
Over the past year, major artists including the band Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all backed the Music Venues Trust in its initiatives to support the industry, by applying a small levy to their ticket prices, which benefits local stages.
He also joined in, collecting over £100k on his 2024 arena tour to help 38 small stages across Britain.
The donation assisted venues that were confronting possible closure due to difficulties arising from floods, fires and family tragedies, as well as permit problems, legal disputes and sound issues.
Other venues obtained funding support in modernizing infrastructure and gear that positively impacted musicians and audiences.
"The idea that revenue from shows in major spaces helps the smaller venues, where it begins for performers like me, is just logical," Fender has stated.
Fender is not the first artist to donate his Mercury Prize funds to charitable organizations.
Back when Pulp won the prize in the mid-90s for their album Different Class, frontman Cocker stated that the group would give their prize money to the non-profit War Child.
During 2002, artist the artist shared her prize between several good causes, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.
"Additionally, I gave a grand to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics class, because I did gymnastics when I was a child and they needed better apparatus," Ms Dynamite told a publication.
In recent years, Ezra Collective contributed their prize money to the community center that supported their band, as well as other grassroots music organisations.
Additionally the 1994 recipients the group donated their award to a charity for MS after a close contact was found to have the illness.
"The victory was sufficient," remarked artist Small. "The cash was the extra but we didn't need the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our success affected somebody else's life."
In the past week, the trust shared it had rescued several local spots in the South East, by placing them under public stewardship.
The Joiners in Southampton and The Croft in that location were purchased under the public acquisition initiative, which is backed by the arts council and music fans who purchase "stakes" in the buildings.
