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 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 fairly different and unusual. Apart from the regular college 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 take place throughout 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 takes place. This three day event is organised around the last week of January every year. The foundation of the event was laid by the people who own 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 each year.
Yet 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 started in 2006 and has been an important attraction in this region. The event includes many bike games, a bikers show, music and parades and the big attraction known as the Teresi Dyno-Drag. In this interactive event, bikers test their skills in racing to see how fast they can really go in a quarter mile stretch.
One of the most exciting festivals that take place in Longview would be 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 newest introduction to the fest has been the Kids Marathon run where children between the ages of 5 to 12 participate in a 25.2 miles run.
The most popular amongst every one of these is the Great Texas Balloon race that is held in the month of July each 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 during the launch of the Longview Mall as being a giant celebration. It carried on thereafter and has grown 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. An added attraction of this event is always to see 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 main newspaper publication of this area and goes back to 187. This publication carries all the local news, sports and community details.