Longview news diary and sporting events
Longview is a city spread between Harrison County and Gregg County in Texas. This city is considered to be the commercial hub for the Longview Metropolitan Statistical Area and it is considered one of its principle cities. With a population of approximately 77,000 people, Longview features a majority population led by Whites, Hispanics, Native Americans, African Americans, Pacific Islanders and Asians respectively.
The Longview sports scene is quite different and unconventional. Aside from the regular college sports of football, volleyball, Baseball, golf, softball, soccer and other varsity games, they host several 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 aspect 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 on the last week of January every year. The foundation of the event was laid by the owners of Longview Marines, Gene Brady and Dale Clark and has been active since 1982. This expo brings RVs, yachts, boats and motorcycles, ATVs from all of across East Texas in one location drawing almost over 10,000 attendees annually.
Another significant attraction in this area would be the Annual Memorial Day Motorcycle rally. This rally brings individual bikers and motorcycle riders and such clubs coming from all over Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. This event began in 2006 and has been an important attraction in this area. The big event includes numerous bike games, a bikers show, music and parades and the big attraction called the Teresi Dyno-Drag. In this interactive event, bikers test their skills in racing and find out how fast they could really go in a quarter mile stretch.
One of the most interesting festivals that occur 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 that 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 could be the Great Texas Balloon race that is held in the month of July each year at the East Texas Regional Airport. This event is considered as the “longest running hot-air balloon race in Texas”. This race began in 1978 over the launch of the Longview Mall as a giant celebration. It carried on thereafter and it has grown into a competitive event of first class standards. This event is said to draw in world class hot air balloon pilots from all around the globe and comprises of balloon fights and balloon glows. The added attraction in this event is to observe how these balloons get inflated and handled. This is an event which is held in association with the North American Balloon Association and invites eighty special sport balloons.
The Longview News Journal is the major newspaper publication of this area and goes back to 187. This publication carries all of the local news, sports and community information.