Sam Fender has donated the complete sum of his twenty-five thousand pound honor winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which functions to protect the UK's small concert spaces.
The star was presented with the prize on October 16 as his latest record People Watching was declared the top album of the last 12 months.
He has opted to hand the money over to the Music Venues Trust, in recognition of the crucial part local spots fulfilled in his early career.
"As an artist couldn't be pursuing what I am doing today if it weren't for all the gigs I performed around the area, and further afield, when I was beginning," remarked Fender. "These spaces are legendary, but they are struggling."
Since the start of 2023, at least 150 of these venues have ceased operations – approximately 16 percent of the entire UK sector.
Recently, top acts including Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the Music Venues Trust in its initiatives to keep the scene afloat, by including a minor surcharge to their admission fees, which goes to help independent venues.
Fender also participated, collecting over £100k on his recent tour to support 38 grassroots venues across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The donation assisted spaces that were confronting possible closure due to difficulties arising from water damage, blazes and bereavements, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and noise complaints.
Some locations obtained monetary aid in modernizing facilities and technical equipment that helped musicians and concertgoers.
"The notion that money from performances in major spaces helps the smaller venues, where it all starts for artists like me, is just logical," Fender has stated.
He is far from the only musician to give his Mercury Prize funds to good deeds.
In the band won the prize in 1996 for their release Different Class, vocalist Jarvis Cocker declared that the act would give their cash to the non-profit War Child.
During 2002, artist the artist split her bounty across several good causes, including the children's charity and a Sickle Cell organization.
"Additionally, I contributed a £1,000 to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics program, because I trained in gymnastics when I was a child and they required new equipment," Ms Dynamite told the media.
Two years ago, the band contributed their funds to the local youth club that nurtured their group, as well as other independent music bodies.
And winners that year the group contributed their award to a MS organization after a close contact was identified with the disease.
"Receiving the award was quite enough," stated vocalist the singer. "The cash was the cherry on top but we could do without the cherry, because we had the cake. So our winning impacted another person's life."
In the past week, the trust revealed it had protected two small stages in that region, by placing them under local control.
The Joiners in the city and The Croft in that location were bought under the Own Our Venues scheme, which is backed by a national body and music fans who acquire "stakes" in the properties.
