Longview news journal 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 fairly different and unusual. Aside from the regular college sports of football, volleyball, Baseball, golf, softball, soccer as well as other varsity games, they host a number of annual 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 takes place. This 3 day event is organised on the last week of January each year. The building blocks of the event was laid by way of 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 in one location drawing almost over 10,000 attendees annually.
Another major 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 started in 2006 and has been an important attraction in this area. The event includes numerous bike games, a bikers show, music and parades as well as the big attraction called the Teresi Dyno-Drag. In this interactive event, bikers test their skills in racing to see how quickly they could really go in a quarter mile stretch.
Probably the most exciting festivals that take place in Longview is the Alley Fest which is held at the start of summer. This fest began in 1978 and hosts an art show, a music festival, a food contest as well as a marathon run that is a 1 mile, 5K and 10K course. The newest introduction to the fest has been the Kids Marathon run where children between 5 to 12 participate in a 25.2 miles run.
The most famous amongst 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 considered 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 carried on thereafter and has evolved into a competitive event of first class standards. This event is considered to attract world-class hot air balloon pilots from all across the world and consists 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 major newspaper publication of this area and dates back to 187. This publication carries all the local news, sports and community details.
