TWO TV personalities are lined up to be part of the upcoming Gravity Fields Festival in Grantham.
As organisers prepare to launch September’s ambitious festival in London next week, it is revealed that the festival will by opened by Dallas Campbell, of the BBC’s Bang Goes The Theory, and will also feature Marty Jopson, The One Show’s ‘Science Bloke’.
Other stand-out names are Professor Valerie Gibson, UK spokesman for the Large Hadron Collider, Professor Martin Rees, astronomer royal, and astrophysicist and author Chris Lintott.
They are all contributing to the week-long celebration of the science and arts, with a strong focus on Grantham’s son Sir Isaac Newton.
Grantham-born and educated Prof Gibson believes the festival is a long overdue public acknowledgement of a man whose legacy stretches from the first reflecting telescope to the everyday cat flap.
She said: “It is a pleasure to return to Grantham and take part in a festival dedicated to the life and career of Newton. He has been an inspiration to not only me but countless others to follow his path of scientific discovery and a festival such as Gravity Fields cannot fail to inspire a whole new audience.”
Gravity Fields will be launched to the national press on Tuesday, at London’s National Portrait Gallery, followed on Wednesday by tickets going on sale to all events.
South Kesteven District Council is behind the festival, which it is hoped will take place every two years, and leader Councillor Linda Neal believes SKDC’s financial investment is worthwhile. She believes it will put Grantham on the map alongside Stratford celebrating Shakespeare and Hay on the Wye’s book festival.
She said: “Grantham has traditionally been linked to Margaret Thatcher but in Isaac Newton we have a man whose thinking and discoveries changed the world for ever and still influence all our lives. It’s time to celebrate that and we are in the privileged position of making it happen.”
Gravity Fields will take place from September 21 to 28, and will feature a “stratospheric” line-up of speakers, presentations and demonstrations encompassing Newton-related science, arts, drama, poetry, writing, heritage and street theatre.
Highlights will include a mobile planetarium and a rare film of Albert Einstein and other eminent scientists visiting Woolsthorpe Manor and Grantham in 1927 to mark 200 years since the death of Newton.
The festival will end with ‘Transformation of the Town’, whereby Newton-themed processions will parade through the town centre.
As attractions and events are confirmed, they are updated on to the festival website at www.gravityfields.co.uk
Event tickets go on sale on Wednesday and are available via the website.