The artist gives £25,000 award winnings to independent music venues

The artist has handed over the full amount of his £25,000 award winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which operates to preserve the Britain's small music venues.

The star was presented with the cheque on mid-October as his third album the album was named the top album of the past year.

Fender has decided to donate the funds to the trust, in acknowledgment of the vital role grassroots venues played in his early career.

"I personally wouldn't be doing this success if it wasn't for all the shows I performed around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was starting out," stated the artist. "These locations are renowned, but they are struggling."

From early 2023 onward, over 150 of these venues have permanently closed – roughly one-sixth of the entire UK sector.

In the last year, top acts like Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the trust in its efforts to help venues survive, by applying a small levy to their ticket costs, which benefits smaller concert halls.

Fender also participated, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to assist 38 small stages across Britain.

The money supported locations that were confronting possible closure due to challenges arising from floods, blazes and bereavements, as well as regulatory hurdles, conflicts and neighbor objections.

Other venues were granted financial assistance in upgrading facilities and sound and lighting systems that directly benefitted performers and fans.

"The concept that funds from concerts in major spaces supports the independent spots, where it begins for artists like me, is just sensible," Sam Fender has said.

He is not the first artist to contribute his Mercury Prize funds to good deeds.

In they won the award in the year 1996 for their record the album, frontman Jarvis Cocker announced that the group would donate their cash to the non-profit the charity.

In 2002, artist the artist shared her bounty across a few charities, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.

"And I donated a grand to my local community centre, to their gymnastics program, because I did gymnastics when I was younger and they lacked better apparatus," the artist explained to a publication.

In recent years, they contributed their funds to the youth organization that nurtured their group, in addition to other grassroots music organisations.

Additionally winners that year the group gave their winnings to a multiple sclerosis charity after a acquaintance was diagnosed the illness.

"The victory was sufficient," said artist Heather Small. "The cash was the cherry on top but we didn't need the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our success affected somebody else's life."

Recently, the MVT revealed it had protected a couple of local spots in south-east England, by bringing them into public stewardship.

One venue in Southampton and the second in that location were acquired under the public acquisition scheme, which is backed by Arts Council England and music fans who acquire "shares" in the venues.