Sam Fender donates £25,000 cash award to independent live spaces
The star has handed over the full amount of his twenty-five thousand pound honor cash to the Music Venues Trust, which functions to preserve the Britain's small music venues.
He was given the cheque on October 16 as his third album his work was chosen as the top album of the previous year.
The musician has opted to give the cash to the MVT, in acknowledgment of the vital role local spots had in his early career.
"As an artist wouldn't be doing what I am doing today if it hadn't been for all the gigs I did around the North East, and elsewhere, when I was just getting going," remarked Fender. "These spaces are legendary, but they are facing challenges."
Beginning in 2023, more than 150 of these venues have permanently closed – roughly 16% of the entire UK sector.
Over the past year, major artists like Pulp, the group Coldplay, Katy Perry and Ed Sheeran have all supported the MVT in its initiatives to help venues survive, by adding a minor surcharge to their ticket costs, which benefits smaller concert halls.
He also joined in, collecting in excess of £100,000 on his 2024 arena tour to assist thirty-eight small stages across England, Scotland, and Wales.
These funds supported spaces that were confronting imminent closure due to challenges arising from flooding, fires and bereavements, as well as permit problems, conflicts and neighbor objections.
Additional spaces obtained monetary aid in modernizing infrastructure and sound and lighting systems that helped musicians and audiences.
"The notion that money from performances in large arenas supports the local stages, where it begins for artists like me, is just common sense," Fender has said.
The musician is not the first artist to give his honor prize money to worthy causes.
In they won the prize in the mid-90s for their record their work, frontman Cocker declared that the act would donate their winnings to the charity the charity.
During 2002, rapper and singer she divided her award among a few organizations, including the NSPCC and a charity for Sickle Cell.
"Additionally, I donated a thousand pounds to the center, to their gymnastics class, because I practiced gymnastics when I was a child and they required updated gear," she shared with the media.
Two years ago, the band donated their winnings to the local youth club that developed their band, alongside other independent music bodies.
And winners that year M People gave their winnings to a multiple sclerosis charity after a friend was diagnosed the illness.
"Winning was quite enough," stated singer the singer. "The cash was the extra but we didn't require the cherry, because we had the main prize. So our winning affected somebody else's life."
Recently, the Music Venues Trust shared it had protected several small stages in south-east England, by placing them under community ownership.
One venue in that area and the other in that location were purchased under the public acquisition program, which is supported by a national body and music fans who acquire "stakes" in the venues.