Sam Fender has handed over the entirety of his £25,000 award prize money to the Music Venues Trust, which operates to protect the United Kingdom's independent concert spaces.
He was awarded the award on 16 October as his third album the album was declared the top album of the last 12 months.
He has decided to donate the funds to the trust, in appreciation of the vital role local spots played in his beginning days.
"As an artist wouldn't be doing this success if it weren't for all the gigs I played around the area, and elsewhere, when I was starting out," stated Sam Fender. "These locations are legendary, but they are struggling."
From early 2023 onward, over 150 of these spaces have ceased operations – approximately one-sixth of the entire UK sector.
Over the past year, top acts like Pulp, 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 admission fees, which benefits local stages.
He also took part, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his live tour to assist 38 small stages across Britain.
These funds assisted locations that were confronting possible closure due to challenges arising from floods, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as regulatory hurdles, conflicts and sound issues.
Other venues were granted financial assistance in improving infrastructure and technical equipment that positively impacted musicians and fans.
"The idea that money from performances in major spaces supports the smaller venues, where it all starts for artists like me, is just logical," Fender has commented.
The musician is far from the only musician to contribute his Mercury Prize funds to worthy causes.
In they received the award in the year 1996 for their album the album, frontman Jarvis Cocker declared that the band would give their prize money to the non-profit the charity.
During 2002, artist the artist divided her award between multiple charities, like the NSPCC and a charity for Sickle Cell.
"Additionally, I contributed a grand to my local community centre, to their gymnastics class, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they needed better apparatus," Ms Dynamite shared with a publication.
Previously, Ezra Collective gave their funds to the local youth club that supported their group, in addition to other independent music bodies.
And 1994 winners M People gave their winnings to a multiple sclerosis charity after a close contact was found to have the condition.
"The victory was sufficient," said vocalist Small. "The prize was the extra but we didn't require the cherry, because we had the honor. So our victory affected the lives of others."
Recently, the trust announced it had rescued two small stages in that region, by transferring them to community ownership.
The first in the city and the other in the city were purchased under the community ownership initiative, which is supported by the arts council and enthusiasts who buy "ownership units" in the buildings.
