Wilderness Festival has announced its Spectacular Main Stage Openings for the 2022 event, with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Orlando Weeks and House Gospel Choir added to the line-up.

Wilderness Festival 2022 will take place at Cornbury Park near Charlbury, Oxfordshire between August 4 and August 7. Sophie Ellis-Bextor will be opening the main stage on Friday, August 5 with former Maccabees frontman Orlando Weeks performing in the same slot on the Saturday and House Gospel Choir on the Sunday.

The event will be headlined by Underworld, Years & Years and Jungle.

​​Elsewhere, there’ll be performances from Roisin Murphy, Willie J Healey, Billie Marten, Pip Blom, Craig Charles, Peggy Gou, Jordan Rakei, Gabriels and more across the weekend.

Additionally, Wilderness has confirmed a schedule of feasting and dining experiences as well as a programme of talks, ideas and spoken word events from the likes of Russell Kane and actor/comedian Michelle De Swarte.

Tickets are on sale now and available here.

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Weeks released his second solo album earlier this year. ‘Hop Up‘ follows on from 2020’s  ‘A Quickening’, and looked to fill in the gaps left by its predecessor. Both records detail Weeks’ experience of becoming a father, with ‘A Quickening’ documenting the anticipation, expectancy and insecurities he felt ahead of the arrival of his son. ‘Hop Up’, on the other hand, revels in the happiness, lightness and all-encompassing love after the baby’s birth.

Speaking to NME about the record, Weeks said: “I wanted that kind of cloud nine feeling with every song – that’s the job I gave myself and Nathan (Jenkins, aka Bullion, the album’s producer). It was to achieve a lightness or a buoyancy. It’s less document and more atmosphere (this time).”

Later this month, Theaudience will return with a deluxe vinyl reissue of their sole, eponymous 1998 album.

The Sophie Ellis-Bextor fronted group were active for three years, between 1996 and 1999. They disbanded after a set of demos recorded for their second album – which was never formally released – were rejected by Mercury Records.