The musician donates £25,000 award winnings to grassroots music venues

The star has handed over the full amount of his £25,000 honor prize money to the trust for venues, which functions to save the United Kingdom's grassroots music venues.

The star was given the prize on mid-October as his third album the album was chosen as the top album of the previous year.

Fender has opted to donate the funds to the MVT, in appreciation of the vital role local spots had in his initial steps.

"As an artist wouldn't be doing my current career if it hadn't been for all the gigs I played around the region, and beyond, when I was just getting going," stated Sam Fender. "These spaces are legendary, but they are in difficulty."

Since the start of 2023, over 150 of these spaces have ceased operations – approximately 16 percent of the entire UK sector.

In the last year, top acts including Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Sheeran have all supported the Music Venues Trust in its efforts to help venues survive, by adding a modest fee to their admission fees, which goes to help local stages.

He also joined in, raising over £100k on his recent tour to assist thirty-eight grassroots venues across Britain.

These funds supported spaces that were dealing with possible closure due to challenges caused by floods, blazes and bereavements, as well as regulatory hurdles, legal disputes and noise complaints.

Additional spaces received financial assistance in modernizing amenities and gear that positively impacted musicians and fans.

"The idea that money from concerts in large arenas supports the local stages, where it kicks off for performers like me, is just logical," Sam Fender has said.

Fender is far from the only musician to give his honor funds to charitable organizations.

Back when Pulp won the prize in 1996 for their album Different Class, frontman Jarvis Cocker stated that the band would give their winnings to the organization War Child.

In 2002, artist Ms Dynamite divided her prize across multiple organizations, such as the children's charity and a charity for Sickle Cell.

"And I contributed a thousand pounds to Highgate Newtown, to their classes, because I trained in gymnastics when I was growing up and they required better apparatus," she explained to the media.

In recent years, Ezra Collective gave their funds to the community center that nurtured their act, in addition to other grassroots music organisations.

Also winners that year the group donated their award to a charity for MS after a close contact was diagnosed the condition.

"Winning was sufficient," remarked artist Heather Small. "The money was the extra but we didn't require the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our victory affected somebody else's life."

Last week, the Music Venues Trust revealed it had rescued two small stages in that region, by transferring them to public stewardship.

One venue in Southampton and The Croft in the city were bought under the Own Our Venues scheme, which is funded by a national body and music fans who buy "ownership units" in the buildings.