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Wednesday, October 14, 2026
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The artist contributes £25,000 Mercury Prize to independent concert halls

Sam Fender receiving the award in Newcastle
Sam Fender was awarded the Mercury Prize last month in the North East

The artist has given the complete sum of his £25,000 award prize money to the MVT, which operates to save the Britain's small concert spaces.

The star was awarded the prize on mid-October as his latest record the album was named the top album of the past year.

Fender has opted to hand the money over to the MVT, in appreciation of the essential function local spots played in his early career.

"I personally wouldn't be doing what I am doing today if it wasn't for all the gigs I played around the area, and elsewhere, when I was beginning," said the artist. "These venues are renowned, but they are in difficulty."

Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these locations have shut down – approximately 16 percent of the entire UK sector.

In the last year, top acts such as Pulp, Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all backed the trust in its initiatives to support the industry, by adding a minor surcharge to their ticket prices, which supports smaller concert halls.

Fender also participated, collecting more than £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to assist 38 grassroots venues across Britain.

The money assisted spaces that were confronting imminent closure due to difficulties caused by floods, blazes and bereavements, as well as licensing issues, legal disputes and noise complaints.

Additional spaces were granted funding support in upgrading facilities and sound and lighting systems that directly benefitted musicians and audiences.

"The idea that revenue from concerts in major spaces supports the independent spots, where it kicks off for musicians like me, is just sensible," Fender has said.

Pulp members in concert
They are one of the many acts who donated their award winnings to charity

Fender is not the first artist to give his award winnings to good deeds.

In they received the award in the year 1996 for their record the album, vocalist the singer announced that the act would donate their winnings to the organization War Child.

That year, rapper and singer the artist divided her award across a few organizations, like the NSPCC and a Sickle Cell charity.

"I also gave a £1,000 to Highgate Newtown, to their gymnastics class, because I practiced gymnastics when I was a child and they required better apparatus," Ms Dynamite shared with outlets.

Previously, Ezra Collective contributed their winnings to the youth organization that nurtured their band, alongside other local music groups.

Also winners that year M People donated their award to a charity for MS after a acquaintance was diagnosed the disease.

"Winning was sufficient," stated singer Heather Small. "The cash was the extra but we didn't require the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our success touched somebody else's life."

In the past week, the Music Venues Trust shared it had protected a couple of local spots in south-east England, by placing them under community ownership.

The first in Southampton and the second in that location were acquired under the Own Our Venues initiative, which is supported by the arts council and enthusiasts who buy "ownership units" in the venues.

The writer

Kimberly Rangel

A historian and architectural enthusiast with over a decade of experience documenting and analyzing heritage buildings across Europe and Asia.

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