A quirky arts and science festival celebrating the legacy of one of Britain’s greatest scientists is set to return to Lincolnshire.
Visitors to Sir Isaac Newton’s home county will once again be able to embark on a journey through arts and science in 2022 during an innovative family festival based in and around the town of Grantham.
Staged every two years, the Gravity Fields Festival is the UK’s only festival dedicated exclusively to the scientific legacy of Newton, born and raised at Woolsthorpe Manor, near Grantham, and who was a pupil at the town’s King’s School.
After being cancelled in 2020, organisers South Kesteven District Council are aiming to bring back the full festival in September 2022.
While plans are still being finalised, the event – first staged in 2012 – is normally a five-day festival featuring a line-up of nationally and internationally renowned scientists, as well as some of the best contemporary talent in the art world.
In previous years the festival has featured everything from the chance to step into a room like no other in an Anti Gravity Box; ride on an eye catching open top vehicle mixing live performance and digital technology; and watch show-stopping outdoor arts spectacles in the town centre.
High profile presentations are also staged during the biennial event, as part of the festival’s aims to inspire people with the concepts of innovation, experimentation and creative thinking across science and the arts.
It celebrates Newton’s life and times and his relationship with Grantham, as well as how his groundbreaking work affected the course of science.
Woolsthorpe () was home to his world-changing thoughts on light, gravity and mathematics, with early drawings hand carved on the Manor walls. The apple tree that famously inspired his theory of gravity survives to this day in the garden.
There is even a Newton’s Trail, which can be explored by car, bike or on foot, mapping out off-the-beaten track locations and attractions in this historic hidden corner of Newton’s home county ().
For the latest updates on the Gravity Fields Festival, visit www.gravityfields.co.uk.
For details about visiting, and staying in, Lincolnshire, see www.visitlincolnshire.com.