Back in September 2012, Grantham threw a five-day party in honour of its most famous former resident, Sir Isaac Newton, and the very first Gravity Fields Festival was born.
It ran from Friday 21 September, opened by Dallas Campbell of the BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory, and packed more than 100 talks, exhibitions and performances into the town. Over the course of the week it drew tens of thousands of visits. The Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, unveiled a blue plaque to Newton at the old King’s School grammar building on Church Street, and the whole thing ended in fine style with 1,000 local schoolchildren parading in costume and Cirque Bijou performing a planetary aerial spectacle above the Guildhall.
It went on to become a biennial fixture, returning in 2014, 2016 and 2018, before the planned 2020 festival fell victim to the covid pandemic and never took place.
Who was there in 2012? We’d love to see your photos and hear what you remember.
All photos – thanks to Cllr Ian Selby
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