Newton's Nation, originally Newton's Playground, is an Australian sports festival since 2008.
History
2008
The initial Newton's Playground festival was run by Bathurst Council. The event was the idea of Simon Rollins, he was an events person at Bathurst Council, and looking for new ways to utilise Mt Panorama (a famous car racing track). The event would centre around skateboard and luge racing on Mt Panorama. Within the Australian downhill community Mount Panorama is a special destination. It is illegal to skate on the mountain, and it had been discussed many times on online forums such as Charlie Dont Skate about holding an event or race. Eddie Spearing, a New Zealand skater, contacted Bathurst Council about holding a slalom race on Mt Panorama. He posted on Charlie Don't Skate the original idea, and then rang Bathurst Council. He was put in contact with Simon Rollin, and the gravity games event was started. Bathurst Council was the main organiser, they contracted the sports organising bodies to provide the sports. The skateboard racing (downhill, luge, gravity bikes, slalom) was contracted to ASRA (Australian Skateboard Racing Association). ASRA was a very young sporting association, which was formed out of the Sydney skateboard slalom scene.
Sports in this initial festival included downhill skateboarding, slalom, street luge, classic luge, inline skating, gravity bike, BMX freestyle, Mountain Bike, Wake Boarding, Parkour and a skateboard mini ramp. Bands such as Grinspoon provided concerts.
The global downhill sanctioning body was IGSA. The first Newtons Playground was a World Cup under IGSA. The President Marcus Rietema was the IGSA official at Newtons. He thought the idea of a music festival wrapped around a gravity sports event a unique idea. He was prepared to grant the second event in 2009 World Championship status. Under IGSA rules, there were a certain number of events each year designated World Cup. Competitors would get ranking points for their finishing place in the race. Racer with the most points wins the World Cup. One of these events would be the World Championship race. The winner of this race would be crowned World Champion. Effectively there were two overall winners each year under IGSA: World Cup winner and World Championship. Newton's Playground was given World Championship status in 2009.
2009
Bathurst Council did not participate in the second year of Newton's Playground due to budget constraints. The event was privatised, Simon Rollin put together a consortium to run a second year of Newton's Playground. At the early stages of planning the venture was cancelled. Although the festival around Newton's Playground was cancelled, ASRA approached Bathurst Council and asked to run the IGSA World Championship event. Council agreed to let ASRA run the racing on Mt Panorama, and ASRA funded the event via rider fees, sponsorship and a NSW Sports department grant that recognised the significance of bringing a world class event to NSW. was to be the sanctioning bodyMost of the downhill sports events continued. The event was organized by the Australian Skateboard Racing Association (ASRA) and was sanctioned by the International Gravity Sports Association (IGSA) who designated the race as the 2009 World Championships. The Open Downhill Skateboarding World Championship was won by Kevin Reimer from Vancouver, Canada. Nick Duffield from Adelaide, an Australian won the Street Luge World Championship and Andy Lally from Decula, Georgia, USA was the Classic Luge World Championship. Brianne Davies from Vancouver, Canada won the Women's Downhill Skateboarding World Championship and Evren Ozan from Laguna Beach, California, USA was the Junior Downhill Skateboarding World Champion.