Longview news journal and sports

Longview is 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. Having a population of around 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 unconventional. Apart from the regular collegiate sports of football, volleyball, Baseball, golf, softball, soccer and other varsity games, they host a number of annual events that vary from boat races, balloon races, motorcycle rallies, athletic events. All these events take place 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 takes place. This three day event is organised on the last week of January each year. The building blocks of the event was laid by way of 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 area 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 big event includes many bike games, a bikers show, music and parades and the big attraction called the Teresi Dyno-Drag. In this interactive event, bikers test their abilities in racing to see how quickly they could 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 in 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 is the Kids Marathon run where children between the ages of 5 to 12 take part in a 25.2 miles run.

The most popular among every one of these is the Great Texas Balloon race that 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 being a giant celebration. It continued thereafter and it has grown into a competitive event of world class standards. This event is considered to draw in world-class hot air balloon pilots from all across the world and consists of balloon fights and balloon glows. The added attraction in this event is always to see how these balloons get inflated and handled. 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 of this area and goes back to 187. This publication carries all of the local news, sports and community details.