the first mass ascension of the 2009 balloon fiesta is just nine hours away. 550 hot air balloons taking part — in albuquerque’s biggest event of the year. antoinette antonio is live at balloon fiesta park with a look at the last-minute touches. antoinette? even at the ten o'clock hour -- plenty of vendors are out here getting ready for the big nine day event. then it's back in just a few hours. sleep? --- ah, who needs it. the grounds look pretty empty.. with the exception of workers and vendors putting on the finishing touches. but by the wee hours of the morning -- balloon fiesta park should look more like this. hot air balloons -- and the smell of breakfast burritos in the air. i'm gonna be ready in the morning, we're starting off with breakfast burritos with hatch chile, and um we do an all american breakfast eggs, sausage, juices, hash browns, and then we go right into lunch after that. chef charles is already smokin' that lunch meat-- enough for the big crowds he's expecting. "this is a real wood fire oven" a few doors down -- we see where sam issac will be cookin' up the breakfast pizzas. both vendors -- fiesta first-timers -- and optimistic the numbers will top last year slump. only 700- thousand people came through the gates -- this year vendors say they're hoping for close to 900- thousand. "that's gonna be the largest crowd we ever had in front of our booth." and as you can imagine -- there's no rest for the weary. thesguys are back up and at it -- before you even step on the park and ride. "we lay down in bed and run it through our mind over and over and over again what's gonna come tomorrow and we're up around 4 o'clock tomorrow to get balloon fiesta park early because we do expect a lot of people." fiesta organizers say last year's slump wasn't because of the economy. you can blame most of it on the weather guy.