Longview is actually 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 is considered one of its principle cities. 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. Aside from the regular college sports of football, volleyball, Baseball, golf, softball, soccer as well as other varsity games, they host several annual events that vary 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 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 in one location drawing almost over 10,000 attendees annually.
Yet 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 it has been a major 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 abilities in racing and find out how fast they could really go in a quarter mile stretch.
Probably the most exciting festivals that take place in Longview is 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 has been the Kids Marathon run where children between the ages of 5 to 12 participate in a 25.2 miles run.
The most famous among all these is the Great Texas Balloon race which 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 continued thereafter and has evolved into a competitive event of world class standards. This event is said 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 of this event is always to observe how these balloons get inflated and operated. 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 in this area and goes back to 187. This publication carries all of the local news, sports and community information.
