🔗 Share this article The artist gives £25,000 award winnings to grassroots music venues He received the Mercury Prize recently in his hometown Sam Fender has donated the complete sum of his £25,000 award cash to the MVT, which operates to protect the UK's small music venues. He was presented with the cheque on mid-October as his latest record his work was named the best record of the previous year. He has opted to hand the money over to the Music Venues Trust, in acknowledgment of the vital role local spots played in his initial steps. "As an artist wouldn't be doing my current career if it wasn't for all the performances I played around the area, and beyond, when I was starting out," stated Sam Fender. "These locations are renowned, but they are struggling." Since the start of 2023, over 150 of these spaces have permanently closed – about 16 percent of the entire UK sector. In the last year, top acts such as the band Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all aided the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to support the industry, by including a minor surcharge to their ticket prices, which goes to help independent venues. Sam Fender also joined in, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his recent tour to help 38 local spots across the UK. The money assisted venues that were facing imminent closure due to difficulties arising from floods, fire incidents and bereavements, as well as licensing issues, court cases and neighbor objections. Other venues received funding support in modernizing infrastructure and gear that positively impacted artists and fans. "The idea that revenue from performances in big venues supports the local stages, where it all starts for artists like me, is just common sense," Sam Fender has said. The group are one of the many acts who gave their honor prize money to charity Fender is not the first artist to give his award prize money to charitable organizations. When Pulp received the trophy in 1996 for their album Different Class, vocalist Jarvis Cocker announced that the group would contribute their cash to the organization the charity. During 2002, artist she shared her award across several charities, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity. "And I donated a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their gymnastics class, because I practiced gymnastics when I was growing up and they lacked updated gear," the artist explained to outlets. Previously, Ezra Collective donated their funds to the community center that developed their act, alongside other grassroots music organisations. And 1994 winners M People contributed their award to a MS organization after a close contact was diagnosed the condition. "Receiving the award was quite enough," remarked artist Small. "The money was the cherry on top but we could do without the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our victory affected the lives of others." Recently, the MVT shared it had rescued two local spots in the South East, by transferring them to public stewardship. One venue in that area and The Croft in the city were bought under the community ownership initiative, which is backed by Arts Council England and music fans who buy "stakes" in the buildings.