Sam Fender has donated the complete sum of his £25,000 award prize money to the Music Venues Trust, which functions to save the United Kingdom's grassroots concert spaces.
He was given the prize on mid-October as his new release People Watching was declared the top album of the last 12 months.
The musician has decided to hand the money over to the trust, in acknowledgment of the crucial part grassroots venues fulfilled in his beginning days.
"As an artist would not have achieved my current career if it hadn't been for all the performances I performed around the region, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," remarked Sam Fender. "These locations are legendary, but they are facing challenges."
Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these locations have ceased operations – about 16% of the whole industry in the UK.
Recently, major artists such as Pulp, the group Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the Music Venues Trust in its initiatives to help venues survive, by adding a small levy to their ticket costs, which benefits smaller concert halls.
Fender also took part, collecting more than £100,000 on his live tour to help thirty-eight local spots across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The donation helped locations that were confronting potential shutdown due to difficulties arising from floods, fires and bereavements, as well as regulatory hurdles, court cases and sound issues.
Additional spaces obtained monetary aid in upgrading infrastructure and technical equipment that positively impacted performers and concertgoers.
"The concept that money from performances in major spaces backs the local stages, where it begins for artists like me, is just logical," Fender has stated.
Fender is among several artists to donate his honor prize money to worthy causes.
In the band won the trophy in 1996 for their record their work, vocalist the singer stated that the act would donate their cash to the organization War Child.
During 2002, musician Ms Dynamite divided her prize among a few charities, including the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell organization.
"Additionally, I contributed a grand to the center, to their gymnastics program, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they needed new equipment," she shared with outlets.
In recent years, they donated their funds to the youth organization that nurtured their band, in addition to other independent music bodies.
Additionally the 1994 recipients the group donated their prize to a charity for MS after a acquaintance was found to have the condition.
"Receiving the award was sufficient," stated singer Heather Small. "The prize was the cherry on top but we didn't need the extra, because we had the honor. So our success affected another person's life."
In the past week, the Music Venues Trust announced it had protected a couple of small stages in that region, by bringing them into public stewardship.
The Joiners in that area and the second in Bristol were bought under the community ownership program, which is funded by a national body and music fans who buy "stakes" in the properties.
