Some of performances and sessions during these years included Coldcut, Spring Heel Jack, Josh Wink, Autechre, Richie Hawtin, Ken Ishii, Slam, Jeff Mills, Scanner, Orbital, Fangoria, John Acquaviva, Kenny Larkin, and Biosphere.

[citation needed] The year 1997 marked a turning point for the festival, as Sónar by Night moved to a new venue, the Mar Bella sports pavilion, tripling its capacity.

This new home meant that it was possible to offer large format concerts with a strong audiovisual component, attracting performances by artists such as bjork (2002), Kraftwerk (with a 3D show in 2013) and The Chemical Brothers (2005 and 2015)[citation needed] The Sónar by Night Venue hosts several stages; the 15,000 capacity SonarClub, the open air SonarLab and SonarPub and SonarCar.

[citation needed] Sónar by Day also consolidated its extensive range, which is based not only on music but also the exhibitions at SonarMàtica, the activities at SonarPro, the screenings at SonarCinema, and the installations at Sonarama.

[citation needed] Notable artists performing in this period include M.I.A., De La Soul, Linton Kwesi Johnson, The Roots, Justice, Hot Chip,Janelle Monáe, Leila, Madlib, Prefuse 73, Ricardo Villalobos, Kode9, Plaid, The Sugarhill Gang, and Flying Lotus.

Björk (2002), Beastie Boys (2007), LCD Soundsystem (2010), Chic (2006), Pet Shop Boys (2002), Masters At Work (2001), Grace Jones(2009), and The Chemical Brothers (2005 and 2015), Kraftwerk, Jurassic 5, Richie Hawtin, Skrillex, Paul Kalkbrenner, Major Lazer, Jamie Lidell, Diamond Version, Chromatics, Diplo, Baauer, Nicolas Jaar, Liars, Lindstrøm & Todd Terje, Adrian Sherwood & Pinch, Seth Troxler, Gold Panda.

Autechre, FKA Twigs, A$AP Rocky Jean-Michel Jarre, New Order, and Anhoni[citation needed] In 2019, Sónar shifted the date of its Barcelona edition from June to July and increased its focus on acts from the Latin, urban, trap and reggaeton music genres.

All Sónar events reflect the wider mission of creating a dialogue between the local and international scene in each territory, and feature a strong creative technological component.

[citation needed] These locations have included: Chicago, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Hamburg, Bogota, New York, Seoul, Rome, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Taking place at Hong Kong Science Park the event has featured performances from DJ Shadow, Laurent Garnier, The Black Madonna and Squarepusher among others.

Recent editions have featured artists and thinkers such as Brian Eno, Björk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Richie Hawtin, Kode 9, Holly Herndon,[16] Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

[citation needed] To commemorate Sónar's 25th anniversary in 2018, the festival embarked on an experiment to send 33 pieces of music to Luyten b, a potentially habitable exo-planet located 12.4 light years from Earth.

Artists close to the festival who submitted specially created pieces of music include Jean-Michel Jarre, Autechre, Squarepusher, Nina Kraviz, The Black Madonna, Matmos, Laurent Garnier and Olafur Arnalds.

The project was devised as "A celebration, an artistic and scientific experiment and a collective rumination on what it means to be human, and alien",[17] and developed in collaboration with the Catalonia Institute of Space Studies and METI.