Longview is actually a city spread between Harrison County and Gregg County in Texas. This city is regarded as the commercial hub for the Longview Metropolitan Statistical Area and 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 fairly different and unusual. Apart from the regular college sports of football, volleyball, Baseball, golf, softball, soccer and other fatihfatih varsity games, they host several yearly events that vary from boat races, balloon races, motorcycle rallies, athletic events. All these events happen throughout the year and celebrate some facet of sports combined with their culture.
From the month of January the East Texas Boat, RV and Camping Expo occurs. This three day event is held around the last week of January each year. The building blocks 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 across East Texas under one roof drawing almost over 10,000 attendees annually.
Another significant attraction in this area is 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 it has been a major attraction in this area. The event includes many bike games, a bikers show, music and parades as well as the big attraction known as the Teresi Dyno-Drag. During this interactive event, bikers test their abilities in racing to see how quickly they could really go in a quarter mile stretch.
One of the most exciting festivals that occur in Longview is the Alley Fest which is held at 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 latest introduction to the fest is the Kids Marathon run where children between 5 to 12 participate in a 25.2 miles run.
The most popular among every one of these is the Great Texas Balloon race which 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 over the launch of the Longview Mall as being a giant celebration. It continued thereafter and has grown into a competitive event of first class standards. This event is said to attract world-class hot air balloon pilots from all across the world and comprises of balloon fights and balloon glows. The added attraction of this event is always to observe how these balloons get inflated and handled. It 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 main newspaper publication in this area and dates back to 187. This publication carries all the local news, sports and community information.
