The Sugar Store on the Medina waterfront is becoming the venue that defines the Fairest Isle Festival, and Havana Nights on the evening of 16 May is the concert that earns that reputation most directly. The programme moves through Latin American music from the Caribbean to the Argentine, alternating between what the festival describes as Caribbean sunlight and the darkest of shadows: rhythm and longing in a two-hour arc that the audience is encouraged to feel rather than sit still for.
The Sugar Store is a converted warehouse at Shepherds Marina, and the Medina River light at dusk gives the space something that a theatre cannot replicate. The Fairest Isle Festival pairs it with musicians who specialise in this repertoire rather than adapting a classical ensemble to Latin American idioms, which makes the difference between a concert that educates and one that moves you.
Tickets from £19, booking required. Saturday evening, 16 May. More music events on the Isle of Wight across the festival and the wider island calendar.
