Longview is a city spread between Harrison County and Gregg County in Texas. This city is regarded as the commercial hub with the Longview Metropolitan Statistical Area and is one of its principle cities. Having 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 unconventional. Apart from the regular collegiate sports of football, volleyball, Baseball, golf, softball, soccer and other fatihfatih.com 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.
From the month of January the East Texas Boat, RV and Camping Expo occurs. This three day event is organised around the last week of January every year. The building blocks of this event was laid by the owners of 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 across East Texas under one roof drawing almost over 10,000 attendees each year.
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 from all over Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. This event began in 2006 and has been a major attraction in this region. The 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 to see how quickly they can really go in a quarter mile stretch.
One of the most interesting festivals that take place in Longview is the Alley Fest that is held in 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 latest 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 famous amongst all these could be the Great Texas Balloon race which is held in the month of July each 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 draw in 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 to see how these balloons get inflated and operated. 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.
