The musician donates his £25k prize cash award to small concert halls

The artist holding the award in his hometown
Sam Fender was awarded the Mercury Prize recently in Newcastle

The artist has donated the complete sum of his twenty-five thousand pound award winnings to the trust for venues, which operates to preserve the United Kingdom's grassroots music venues.

The star was awarded the award on 16 October as his latest record the album was declared the outstanding release of the last 12 months.

The musician has opted to hand the money over to the trust, in appreciation of the essential function grassroots venues fulfilled in his initial steps.

"As an artist couldn't be pursuing this success if it weren't for all the shows I performed around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was beginning," remarked the artist. "These venues are iconic, but they are in difficulty."

Beginning in 2023, over 150 of these locations have shut down – about 16% of the whole industry in the UK.

In the last year, major artists like Pulp, the group Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the MVT in its efforts to help venues survive, by including a minor surcharge to their admission fees, which supports independent venues.

Sam Fender also took part, raising over £100k on his live tour to support numerous local spots across the UK.

These funds assisted locations that were dealing with imminent closure due to challenges arising from floods, blazes and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and sound issues.

Other venues were granted monetary aid in improving facilities and technical equipment that helped artists and fans.

"The notion that funds from concerts in large arenas backs the smaller venues, where it begins for artists like me, is just logical," Fender has stated.

The band Pulp in concert
The group are among the artists who contributed their award winnings to good causes

The musician is not the first artist to give his Mercury Prize prize money to good deeds.

In they received the award in the year 1996 for their release their work, lead singer the singer declared that the act would contribute their prize money to the non-profit the charity.

That year, rapper and singer the artist divided her award across several good causes, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.

"And I contributed a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their gymnastics program, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they lacked updated gear," the artist told outlets.

Two years ago, the band gave their prize money to the youth organization that nurtured their band, in addition to other grassroots music organisations.

And winners that year they gave their winnings to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was diagnosed the condition.

"The victory was quite enough," said vocalist the singer. "The prize was the cherry on top but we didn't require the cherry, because we had the cake. So our victory affected another person's life."

In the past week, the trust announced it had rescued several small stages in south-east England, by transferring them to local control.

One venue in the city and the other in the city were bought under the community ownership scheme, which is backed by a national body and music fans who purchase "ownership units" in the buildings.

Tyler Porter
Tyler Porter

Tech journalist and gadget enthusiast with over a decade of experience testing and reviewing consumer electronics across the UK market.