Sam Fender has donated the complete sum of his £25k honor prize money to the trust for venues, which works to save the Britain's independent music venues.
He was presented with the cheque on 16 October as his third album his work was chosen as the best record of the previous year.
He has chosen to hand the money over to the MVT, in recognition of the essential function local spots fulfilled in his beginning days.
"As an artist wouldn't be doing what I am doing today if it wasn't for all the performances I played around the region, and beyond, when I was starting out," stated Fender. "These locations are legendary, but they are facing challenges."
Since the start of 2023, at least 150 of these spaces have permanently closed – roughly 16 percent of the whole industry in the UK.
In the last year, top acts like Pulp, Coldplay, the singer Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the trust in its initiatives to support the industry, by applying a small levy to their admission fees, which benefits smaller concert halls.
Sam Fender also participated, generating in excess of £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to support thirty-eight local spots across England, Scotland, and Wales.
The donation supported venues that were confronting imminent closure due to issues caused by water damage, fire incidents and family tragedies, as well as permit problems, legal disputes and noise complaints.
Other venues obtained funding support in improving amenities and sound and lighting systems that directly benefitted musicians and concertgoers.
"The idea that money from shows in large arenas backs the local stages, where it all starts for performers like me, is just logical," Fender has stated.
He is not the first artist to contribute his Mercury Prize prize money to good deeds.
In Pulp earned the prize in the year 1996 for their album the album, lead singer Cocker stated that the band would donate their prize money to the non-profit War Child.
That year, rapper and singer she divided her bounty across several organizations, like the children's charity and a charity for Sickle Cell.
"And I gave a £1,000 to my local community centre, to their gymnastics program, because I practiced gymnastics when I was younger and they needed new equipment," Ms Dynamite told a publication.
In recent years, they gave their winnings to the youth organization that supported their act, as well as other independent music bodies.
And winners that year the group contributed their award to a MS organization after a friend was found to have the disease.
"The victory was sufficient," said singer the singer. "The prize was the bonus but we could do without the cherry, because we had the cake. So our success impacted somebody else's life."
Last week, the trust revealed it had protected a couple of small stages in the South East, by placing them under public stewardship.
The first in that area and the other in Bristol were acquired under the public acquisition scheme, which is supported by Arts Council England and supporters who buy "ownership units" in the venues.
