Longview news diary 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 is one of its principle cities www.gertgambell.net. Having 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 quite different and unusual. Aside from the regular collegiate sports of football , volleyball, Baseball, golf, softball, soccer and other varsity games, they host a number of yearly events that vary from boat races, balloon races, motorcycle rallies, athletic events. Each one of these events happen through the year and celebrate some aspect of sports coupled with their culture.

From 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 each year. The building blocks of this 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 of across East Texas in one location drawing almost over 10,000 attendees each year.

Another significant attraction in this region would be 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 a major attraction in this area. 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 skills in racing and find out how fast they could really go in a quarter mile stretch.

One of the most interesting festivals that occur in Longview would be 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 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 among every one of these could be 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 during the launch of the Longview Mall as being a giant celebration. It continued thereafter and has grown 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. The added attraction of this event is 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 main newspaper publication in this area and dates back to 187. This publication carries all the local news, sports and community details.