Longview news diary and sporting events
Longview is actually a city spread between Harrison County and Gregg County in Texas. This city is regarded as the commercial hub with the Longview Metropolitan Statistical Area and it is one of its principle cities. Having a population of around 77,000 people, Longview has a majority population led by Whites, Hispanics, Native Americans, African Americans, Pacific Islanders and Asians respectively.
The Longview sports scene is fairly different and unusual. Aside from the regular collegiate sports of football, volleyball, Baseball, golf, softball, soccer as well as other varsity games, they host a number of yearly events that vary from boat races, balloon races, motorcycle rallies, athletic events. Each one of these events happen throughout the year and celebrate some facet of sports coupled with their culture.
From the month of January the East Texas Boat, RV and Camping Expo occurs. This 3 day event is organised around the last week of January each year. The foundation of this event was laid by way of the owners of Longview Marines, Gene Brady and Dale Clark and it has been active since 1982. This expo brings RVs, yachts, boats and motorcycles, ATVs from all across East Texas in one location drawing almost over 10,000 attendees each year.
Yet another significant attraction in this region is the Annual Memorial Day Motorcycle rally. This rally brings individual bikers and motorcycle riders and such clubs from all over Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. This event began in 2006 and it has been a major attraction in this region. The event includes many bike games, a bikers show, music and parades and the big attraction called the Teresi Dyno-Drag. During this interactive event, bikers test their skills in racing and find out how fast they can really go in a quarter mile stretch.
Probably the most exciting festivals that take place in Longview is the Alley Fest which is held in the onset of summer. This fest began in 1978 and hosts an art show, a music festival, a food contest and a marathon run which is a 1 mile, 5K and 10K course. The newest introduction to the fest is the Kids Marathon run where children between the ages of 5 to 12 participate in a 25.2 miles run.
The most famous among all these is the Great Texas Balloon race that is held in the month of July every year at the East Texas Regional Airport. This event is regarded as the “longest running hot-air balloon race in Texas”. This race began in 1978 during the launch of the Longview Mall as a giant celebration. It continued thereafter and has grown into a competitive event of first class standards. This event is considered to attract world-class hot air balloon pilots from all around the globe and consists of balloon fights and balloon glows. An added attraction in this event is to see how these balloons get inflated and operated. This is an event that is held in association with the North American Balloon Association and invites eighty special sport balloons.
The Longview News Journal is the main newspaper publication of this area and goes back to 187. This publication carries all the local news, sports and community details.