Longview is actually a city spread between Harrison County and Gregg County in Texas. This city is considered to be the commercial hub with 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 unconventional. 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 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 3 day event is held on the last week of January each year. The foundation of the 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 of across East Texas under one roof drawing almost over 10,000 attendees each year.
Another major 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 it has been an important attraction in this region. The event includes numerous 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 quickly they could really go in a quarter mile stretch.
Probably the most interesting festivals that occur 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 as well as a marathon run that is a 1 mile, 5K and 10K course. The latest 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 famous among all 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 a giant celebration. It continued thereafter and has evolved into a competitive event of world class standards. This event is considered to attract world-class hot air balloon pilots from all around the globe and consists of balloon fights and balloon glows. The added attraction in this event is always to observe how these balloons get inflated and handled. This 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 of this area and goes back to 187. This publication carries all the local news, sports and community information.