🔗 Share this article The artist donates £25,000 award winnings to grassroots live spaces He received the honor last month in his hometown Sam Fender has given the entirety of his £25,000 award winnings to the trust for venues, which functions to preserve the United Kingdom's independent concert spaces. The star was given the cheque on October 16 as his new release the album was named the outstanding release of the past year. He has chosen to hand the money over to the Music Venues Trust, in recognition of the crucial part small stages had in his beginning days. "As an artist wouldn't be doing what I am doing today if it wasn't for all the gigs I performed around the North East, and further afield, when I was beginning," remarked Fender. "These locations are legendary, but they are in difficulty." Since the start of 2023, at least 150 of these locations have permanently closed – roughly one-sixth of the entire UK sector. Recently, top acts such as Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the MVT in its efforts to help venues survive, by including a minor surcharge to their ticket prices, which benefits local stages. Sam Fender also participated, generating over £100k on his 2024 arena tour to help 38 small stages across the UK. These funds supported spaces that were facing potential shutdown due to issues stemming from floods, fire incidents and personal losses, as well as permit problems, court cases and noise complaints. Additional spaces obtained financial assistance in improving amenities and technical equipment that directly benefitted artists and audiences. "The notion that money from performances in big venues helps the smaller venues, where it kicks off for artists like me, is just sensible," Sam Fender has stated. They are one of the many acts who gave their Mercury Prize funds to non-profits Fender is not the first artist to contribute his Mercury Prize funds to worthy causes. In the band won the award in 1996 for their record Different Class, vocalist Jarvis Cocker stated that the group would give their prize money to the non-profit War Child. That year, musician she shared her prize among multiple organizations, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization. "I also contributed a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was a child and they lacked new equipment," Ms Dynamite told the media. Previously, Ezra Collective contributed their winnings to the youth organization that nurtured their act, alongside other grassroots music organisations. Additionally the 1994 recipients the group donated their award to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was diagnosed the disease. "Winning was quite enough," said vocalist Heather Small. "The prize was the bonus but we could do without the cherry, because we had the cake. So our victory touched somebody else's life." In the past week, the trust shared it had rescued a couple of small stages in the South East, by transferring them to community ownership. The first in that area and the second in Bristol were acquired under the community ownership initiative, which is supported by a national body and music fans who acquire "shares" in the buildings.