Grantham's first Gravity Fields Festival took place in September 2012, a five-day celebration honouring the town's most famous former resident, Sir Isaac Newton.
The festival ran from Friday 21 September and was opened by Dallas Campbell of the BBC's Bang Goes the Theory. It packed more than 100 talks, exhibitions and performances into the town and drew tens of thousands of visits over the week.
Key highlights
The Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, unveiled a blue plaque to Newton at the old King's School grammar building on Church Street. The festival concluded with 1,000 local schoolchildren parading in costume and Cirque Bijou performing a planetary aerial spectacle above the Guildhall.
Festival's later history
Gravity Fields went on to become a biennial fixture, returning in 2014, 2016 and 2018. The planned 2020 festival fell victim to the covid pandemic and did not take place.
