The Sugar Store is the events centre at Shepards Wharf Marina, a couple of minutes from Cowes High Street and a stone’s throw from the chain ferry, and it does the one thing no inland venue can: it puts you right on the water. The building faces out over the Medina with the Solent beyond, and it comes with a run of outdoor decking and a 67-metre pier reaching into the marina. Guests can even arrive by water taxi, should the mood take them.
Recently refurbished and reopened, it is a genuinely large and genuinely flexible space — a main room of roughly 20 metres by 10, holding up to 400 standing or 200 seated, with clear sightlines and no pillars to design around. It is the sort of room that takes styling beautifully precisely because it does not impose a style of its own. Dress it with long tables and festoon lighting and it reads as a rather glamorous boathouse; strip it back and it is a clean, modern waterside hall. The bar is run through an approved partner, and there is street food out along the pier if you would like the evening to feel more festival than formal.
One thing to plan around: the venue runs seasonally, roughly from April through to October, which is of course when you would want to be beside the Solent anyway. It is a favourite for regattas, championships and corporate events as well as weddings, so summer dates in Cowes go early — particularly anything falling near Cowes Week.
Where the band plays
A big open rectangular hall with a hard floor and a high ceiling makes a fine home for a live band, and the scale here means you can have real stage presence rather than squeezing a five-piece into a corner. There is depth for a proper backline and lighting, and with up to 400 in the room a larger band with brass will sound entirely at home. As with any big empty box, the sound improves enormously once the room is dressed and full, so keep the dancefloor tight to the stage and let the decking take the overflow rather than letting the crowd spread thin.
How the evening runs
The natural shape is drinks on the decking and the pier with the marina in front of you, dinner inside, and then the room opened up for dancing with the doors to the water still in play. Evenings run to around midnight, which is two comfortable band sets with room for the speeches in between. The marina is working and residential in equal measure, with boats occupied on the berths just outside, so it is best to agree the finish time and any outdoor music with the team early rather than late.
Load-in and access
Practically speaking this is one of the easier Cowes venues for a band: vehicle access to the marina, flat ground and a short carry, with none of the stairs or narrow doorways that make historic buildings so interesting to load into. It is two minutes from the High Street and walkable from the Red Jet, so musicians coming over as foot passengers can manage without a van if their kit allows it.
Bands available on the Isle of Wight and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music on the Isle of Wight.
- Wedding Bands on the Isle of Wight
- Events Bands on the Isle of Wight
- Tribute Acts on the Isle of Wight
- Wedding DJs on the Isle of Wight
- Corporate Entertainment on the Isle of Wight
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters at Venues: What You Need to Know. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.