The festival has invited many well-known artists and musicians such as the Vasulkas, Autechre, Pauline Oliveros, and Florian Hecker, as well as theorists and scientists such as Graham Harman, Saskia Sassen, Timothy Morton, Benjamin H. Bratton, Raphael Bousso, and George Dyson.

Each festival edition explores the chosen theme by means of an international conference, a wide range of concerts and performances, exhibitions and screenings, and embraces a broad spectrum of fields, practices and disciplines.

In the early years of Sonic Acts, increasing attention was given to demonstrations and workshops, as the festival broadened in scope to focus on the theoretical as well as the practical aspects of artistic developments.

[5] In the following years, the festival continued to present new genres of electronic music that were emerging in the early 1990s, with performances by pioneering acts including Robin Rimbaud and English IDM duo Autechre.

Performing artists included Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Jon Wozencroft, Philip Jeck, BJ Nilsen, Fennesz, Chris Watson and Sickboy.

In 2008, the twelfth edition of the festival promised a comprehensive overview of the cinematic experience, proposing that “recent technological developments in digitalisation, higher definition imagery and sound, ever-faster communication networks and new types of portable video players make it necessary to re-address the question of what cinema actually is".

[16] Lectures were given by Dutch physicist Gerard ’t Hooft, sociologist Saskia Sassen and American architect Keller Easterling, among others, and new works were presented by artists such as Matthijs Munnik, Yamila Rios and Joris Strijbos.

It featured lectures by American philosopher Graham Harman and design theorist Benjamin H. Bratton, as well as work by artists Raviv Ganchrow and Jananne Al-Ani.

Participating artists and speakers included Eyal Weizman, JK Flesh, Roly Porter, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Jennifer Walshe, Le1f, Evian Christ and Christina Vantzou.

[20] The opening night featured four new Vertical Cinema films by Susan Schuppli, HC Gilje, Lukas Marxt, and BJ Nilsen & Karl Lemieux.

The festival hosted more than 120 artists and speakers including Beatriz Ferreyra, Timothy Morton, Straub-Huillet, Rosi Braidotti, Sondra Perry and Ulrike Ottinger.

The most recent edition of Sonic Acts Academy was held from 21 to 23 February 2020 with artists and speakers including Holly Herndon, No Bra, T. J. Demos, and Terike Haapoja.

Dark Ecology[24] was a three-year art, research and commissioning project, initiated by Sonic Acts and Kirkenes-based curator Hilde Methi, and in collaboration with Norwegian and Russian partners.

Living Earth[25] was a collaboration between Sonic Acts, Fridaymilk, Hilde Methi and several Norwegian and Russian partner organisations that was conceived as a follow-up to the successful Dark Ecology project.

Living Earth involved tailored presentations and new adaptations of previously commissioned works, as well as workshops and discussions across Scandinavia and Russia, including at Inversia Festival in Murmansk, SALT in Oslo, and Terminal B in Kirkenes.

Developed in collaboration with Sonic Acts, KONTEJNER and A4 affiliated artists and musicians, the platform contains six free workshop manuals, each promoting listening, mutual sound research and co-creation.