It began in 2010 as a one-day festival showcasing mainly Colombian artists, but low turnout and financial losses during its first three years resulted in a strategic change of direction in 2013, becoming a multi-day festival on a bigger site and inviting major international bands to play alongside artists from Colombia and other Latin American countries.

Among the acts to have played at Estéreo Picnic since 2013 are American artists The Killers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pixies, Nine Inch Nails, Kings of Leon, Jack White, and Snoop Dogg, British groups Gorillaz, New Order, Foals, Kasabian, Mumford & Sons, and Florence and the Machine, and Australian bands Empire of the Sun and Tame Impala.

The festival has also featured many of the major groups of the Latin American alternative music scene, including Calle 13, Babasónicos, Café Tacuba, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, and Aterciopelados, as well as sets from high-profile DJs and dance acts such as Deadmau5, Tiësto, Skrillex, Major Lazer, and Calvin Harris.

Recruiting three more acquaintances, Juan David Shool, Philippe Siegenthaler and Gabriel García, the seven founded a company, Sueño Estéreo (Stereo Dream), to put on the festival.

[3] Faced with continuing losses, the promoters took the decision that they needed a major headlining act to boost ticket sales.

They booked the Killers, whose debut concert in Colombia in 2009 had attracted 10,000 people, as well as other major supporting acts including New Order and Café Tacuba, and reduced ticket prices by 25%.

The organisers hoped that with this new strategy they would sell 18,000 tickets compared with the previous year's 6000: in the event the 2013 festival was attended by 23,324 people.

[13] The 2016 festival gained some unexpected international publicity after one of its invited artists, the American rapper Snoop Dogg, mistakenly tagged himself on his Instagram account as being in Bogata, Romania, instead of Bogotá.

[26] Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins died on 25 March 2022, hours before the band were scheduled to perform on the first night of the Festival.

[27] The festival stage in which Foo Fighters were scheduled to perform that night was turned into a candlelight vigil for Hawkins.