Longview news diary and sporting events

Longview is actually a city spread between Harrison County and Gregg County in Texas. This city is considered to be the commercial hub with the Longview Metropolitan Statistical Area and is one of its principle cities. With a population of around 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 unusual. Aside from the regular college sports of football, volleyball, Baseball, golf, softball, soccer and 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 aspect of sports combined with their culture.

From the month of January the East Texas Boat, RV and Camping Expo occurs. This 3 day event is held around the last week of January each year. The foundation of this event was laid by the people who own 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 of across East Texas under one roof drawing almost over 10,000 attendees annually.

Another significant attraction in this region 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 many bike games, a bikers show, music and parades as well as the big attraction known as the Teresi Dyno-Drag. In this interactive event, bikers test their skills in racing and find out how quickly they could really go in a quarter mile stretch.

Probably the most exciting festivals that occur in Longview is the Alley Fest that 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 which is a 1 mile, 5K and 10K course. The newest introduction to the fest is the Kids Marathon run where children between 5 to 12 take part in a 25.2 miles run.

The most famous 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 carried on thereafter and it has evolved into a competitive event of first class standards. This event is said to draw in world class hot air balloon pilots from all across the world and comprises of balloon fights and balloon glows. An added attraction in this event is to observe how these balloons get inflated and operated. It 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 major newspaper publication in this area and goes back to 187. This publication carries all the local news, sports and community information.