Longview news journal and sports
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 it is one of its principle cities gertgambell. With a population of approximately 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. Apart from the regular collegiate sports of football , volleyball, Baseball, golf, softball, soccer and other varsity games, they host several annual events that range from boat races, balloon races, motorcycle rallies, athletic events. All these events happen through the year and celebrate some facet of sports coupled with their culture.
In 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 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 in one location drawing almost over 10,000 attendees annually.
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 has been an important attraction in this region. The event includes numerous 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 skills in racing and find out how quickly they can really go in a quarter mile stretch.
Probably the most interesting festivals that take place 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 that is a 1 mile, 5K and 10K course. The newest introduction to the fest has been the Kids Marathon run where children between the ages of 5 to 12 take part in a 25.2 miles run.
The most popular amongst all 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 over the launch of the Longview Mall as being a giant celebration. It continued thereafter and it has evolved into a competitive event of world class standards. This event is considered to attract world class hot air balloon pilots from all around the globe and comprises of balloon fights and balloon glows. An added attraction of this event is always 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 main newspaper publication of this area and goes back to 187. This publication carries all of the local news, sports and community information.