North Coast's first festival occurred on September 3–5, 2010 at Union Park in Chicago. The first iteration of the festival received generally positive reviews from the Chicago press including UrChicago which said "this weekend has definitely been one of the highlights of the year. The talent that was raked in for this festival was among some of the best around. This is definitely a festival to keep an eye on in years to come, they brought all they had to the table in 2010 and I'm sure no one left disappointed."[6]
North Coast's second year was held September 2–4 and featured a wider variety of artists including Bassnectar, David Guetta, Zed's Dead, and Major Lazer. This years attendance increased since the debut the year before and sold out days 2 & 3. Reviews were optimistic on the direction of the festival with Consequence of Sound saying, "They call North Coast 'Summer's Last Stand,' and we'd like to keep standing with it for as long as it’ll have us. Any summer that ends with thousands of people dancing in a field together in the cool night air is alright by us."[7]
The 2012 version of North Coast was held on August 31 - September 2 once again on labor day weekend. The festival continued being promoted as "Summer's Last Stand".
2013 saw North Coast feature a more diverse lineup that deviated from the primarily electronic lineups of past years. The festival was plagued by bad weather that forced two different weather evacuations. Nonetheless the festival was still able to continue mostly as planned and the delays did not cause any serious problems for the festival. The first weather evacuation occurred Friday afternoon in the middle of Capital Cities' set. They were visibly upset everyone was going to have to leave and tried to play "Safe and Sound" after being told to end their performance. The power was cut in the middle of the song forcing their show to end without them being able to play the entirety of their song that would later prove to be their biggest claim to fame. The Chicago Tribune said of the rain "Not just one, but two weather evacuations couldn't fully stop the beats and grooves for fans that headed to Chicago's annual Labor Day weekend festival, North Coast Music Festival."[8]
North Coast's 5th anniversary was held August 29-31st and saw the fest expand through Union Park allowing a higher capacity of fans to attend. The Chicago Tribune said "This year the festival grounds were expanded, allowing for an increased capacity of 20,000 per day. Saturday and Sunday sold out, and Friday drew 19,000 fans."[9]
In 2015 North Coast returned to Chicago's Union Park during Labor Day weekend, September 4-6th. This years festival saw the return of the silent disco and "Living Gallery" art exhibit.[10]
Returning to Union Park, North Coast took place August 31 through September 2 with Miguel, Axwell & Ingrosso, DJ Snake & Jamiroquai as headliners.[13] This was the first time since 2005 Jamiroquai performed in Chicago, with Coachella being the first of a few returning US dates.[14] Severe weather forced attendees to evacuate the festival grounds Friday and Saturday, resulting in the cancellation of headliner performances from each day.[15] Attendees of both days were allowed to attend Sunday free of charge.[15]