Previously held every July at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri, but now held in Springfield, Illinois, KansasFest typically lasts five days and features presentations from Apple II experts and pioneers, as well as games, fun events, after-hours hallway chatter, late-night (or all-night) runs out to movies or restaurants, and more.

These festivals spread to be held in various places in the country, and Apple Computer became involved, even to the point of sending executives to give keynote addresses, and holding sessions for developers.

Tom Weishaar had started a newsletter, Open-Apple (later renamed to A2-Central) about the Apple II, and in it he provided information about the computer, how to use it, product reviews, and more.

With time, he created a company named Resource Central to oversee the newsletter and other products available to sell to subscribers.

The first event was held in July 1989, and was called the A2-Central Developer Conference, billed as a chance to "meet the people who will make the Apple II's future".

One of the unanticipated effects of this arrangement was that the college dorm environment encouraged interaction between participants in a way that would not have happened in a hotel.

Declining renewals of the A2-Central newsletter and other products the company sold could no longer sustain the business, and it was necessary to shut down in February of that year.

In the earlier years, it served as an annual rallying point for the Apple II community, as it found itself in a world shrinking in resources that would support it.

Although the annual KansasFest event was coordinated on those online services, the physical meeting provided a recurring connection point.

[13] A programmer, David Schmenk wrote a first-person maze game in 2007, "Escape From The Homebrew Computer Club" using 16-color lo-res graphics, something that could have been run on an Apple II in 1977 if anyone had thought of it.

Starting in 2005, the event began to be held at a new venue, Rockhurst University, nine miles to the north of Avila, and still in Kansas City, Missouri.

These have included: Another popular event held for many years was a "celebrity" roast of prominent members of the Apple II community.