Festival performers have included contemporary music advocates Bang on a Can All-Stars and Kronos Quartet as well as indie rock groups such as Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors and The National.
The 2006 Festival was held at the Contemporary Arts Center, April 26–30, and featured Awadagin Pratt, CelloProject, Bell Orchestre, Glenn Kotche, Clogs, The Books, David Cossin, Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Erik Friedlander, Bell Orchestre, The 2007 festival took place April 5-7 and featured Amiina, My Brightest Diamond, Pedro Soler, Clogs, David Cossin, Amiina, Irena & Vojtech Havel, Sufjan Stevens In 2008, Andrew Bird, fresh from recording, shared many of the songs from his recent release.
Additional performances by Bang on a Can All-Stars, Bill Frisell, Grizzly Bear, The Dirty Projectors, Ben Verdery, and Glenn Kotche.
The fifth annual event featured three nights of music from March 30 to April 1, including performances from Robin Pecknold, Joanna Newsom, yMusic, St. Vincent, Colin Stetson, and Justin Vernon In its sixth year, the MusicNOW Festival featured performances from The National, Sharon Van Etten, Little Scream, Owen Pallett, Tim Hecker, Shara Worden, Richard Reed Parry, yMusic, Megafaun, and Sounds of the South, a collaboration between Megafaun and Fight the Big Bull.
In its seventh year, the 2012 MusicNOW Festival featured performances by Sandro Perri, eighth blackbird with Philip Glass, Sam Amidon, Pedro Soler and Gaspar Claus, James McVinnie and a workshop presentation of the Planetarium song cycle from Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens, Richard Reed Parry, This is the Kit and Bryce Dessner.
In its ninth year, the MusicNOW Festival featured performances from eighth blackbird, Bryce and Aaron Dessner, Olga Bell, Louis Langree, Bonnie "prince" Billy and more.
It featured musical compositions by Bryce and Aaron Dessner, Nico Muhly, Scriabin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jonny Greenwood, David Lang, and Prokofiev.