Sam Fender has handed over the entirety of his twenty-five thousand pound award winnings to the Music Venues Trust, which works to protect the UK's grassroots music venues.
The star was given the award on October 16 as his new release the album was named the top album of the past year.
He has chosen to give the cash to the MVT, in recognition of the crucial part small stages had in his initial steps.
"I wouldn't be doing this success if it weren't for all the shows I performed around the region, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," stated Sam Fender. "These venues are legendary, but they are in difficulty."
Beginning in 2023, at least 150 of these spaces have shut down – roughly one-sixth of the entire UK sector.
Over the past year, well-known musicians such as the band Pulp, the group Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the MVT in its attempts to keep the scene afloat, by including a minor surcharge to their ticket prices, which goes to help local stages.
Fender also participated, raising more than £100,000 on his live tour to help thirty-eight small stages across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The money assisted locations that were confronting potential shutdown due to difficulties arising from water damage, blazes and bereavements, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and noise complaints.
Additional spaces received financial assistance in improving amenities and gear that helped artists and concertgoers.
"The concept that money from concerts in big venues supports the smaller venues, where it kicks off for artists like me, is just common sense," Sam Fender has said.
He is among several artists to contribute his Mercury Prize winnings to worthy causes.
In they won the prize in 1996 for their record Different Class, lead singer the singer declared that the group would contribute their prize money to the organization War Child.
That year, artist she divided her bounty among several organizations, such as the children's charity and a Sickle Cell organization.
"And I gave a £1,000 to my local community centre, to their gymnastics class, because I trained in gymnastics when I was a child and they lacked better apparatus," she told a publication.
Previously, they gave their prize money to the local youth club that developed their act, as well as other local music groups.
Additionally winners that year M People contributed their prize to a MS organization after a friend was identified with the disease.
"Winning was quite enough," stated artist Small. "The cash was the extra but we didn't need the extra, because we had the main prize. So our success affected somebody else's life."
Recently, the MVT revealed it had saved a couple of small stages in the South East, by placing them under local control.
The first in that area and the other in that location were purchased under the community ownership initiative, which is backed by a national body and enthusiasts who buy "shares" in the properties.
