Sam Fender has given the complete sum of his £25,000 award prize money to the trust for venues, which works to save the United Kingdom's independent concert spaces.
Fender was given the award on October 16 as his third album his work was declared the best record of the last 12 months.
Fender has chosen to give the cash to the Music Venues Trust, in recognition of the essential function small stages had in his early career.
"I would not have achieved my current career if it wasn't for all the shows I performed around the North East, and beyond, when I was starting out," said Fender. "These spaces are renowned, but they are struggling."
Beginning in 2023, at least 150 of these venues have shut down – about one-sixth of the total UK scene.
Over the past year, well-known musicians like Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all aided the Music Venues Trust in its attempts to help venues survive, by including a minor surcharge to their ticket costs, which goes to help local stages.
Sam Fender also participated, raising more than £100,000 on his live tour to support numerous local spots across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The money assisted locations that were dealing with imminent closure due to issues stemming from flooding, fire incidents and bereavements, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and sound issues.
Other venues were granted monetary aid in modernizing amenities and technical equipment that positively impacted performers and audiences.
"The notion that money from concerts in big venues backs the smaller venues, where it begins for performers like me, is just logical," Fender has stated.
The musician is not the first artist to give his Mercury Prize prize money to worthy causes.
When Pulp earned the prize in the year 1996 for their release Different Class, lead singer Cocker stated that the act would donate their prize money to the charity War Child.
During 2002, artist she split her bounty across several good causes, such as the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"Additionally, I contributed a thousand pounds to my local community centre, to their gymnastics program, because I practiced gymnastics when I was younger and they lacked better apparatus," the artist explained to a publication.
Previously, Ezra Collective gave their prize money to the community center that developed their band, as well as other local music groups.
Also 1994 winners the group donated their winnings to a MS organization after a close contact was diagnosed the disease.
"The victory was quite enough," said vocalist Heather Small. "The prize was the cherry on top but we didn't require the bonus, because we had the main prize. So our victory affected the lives of others."
Recently, the trust announced it had saved two small stages in that region, by bringing them into community ownership.
One venue in the city and the other in that location were bought under the public acquisition initiative, which is supported by the arts council and music fans who acquire "ownership units" in the venues.
