Disney's 2009 Food & Wine Festival now open

The 2009 Food & Wine Festival at Epcot in Walt Disney World opened this past weekend and this year's festivities are shaping up to be the most grandiose yet. Still not convinced? Disney has released some information on this year's event that may help:

• More than 300 national and international wines
• More than 76 kinds of international foods, each appetizer-sized portion priced $2-$7
• More than 160 of America's most celebrated chefs and Walt Disney World chefs
• 405 wine and beer seminars
• More than 1,200 fireworks rockets exploding each night over World Showcase Lagoon in "IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth" grand finale to the festival
• 135 Eat to the Beat! concerts performed
• 33,000 bottles of wine and champagne
• 1.2 million hors d'oeuvre plates
• 2.1 million Vanity Fair napkins
• 750,000 beer cups
• 690,000 sumptuous samplings
• 600,000 forks
• 338,000 wine glasses
• 100,000 miniature desserts including crème brûlée, traditional apple strudel, Grand Marnier parfait with Orange Coulis and warm chocolate lava cake with Bailey's ganache
• 3,000 gallons of soup, including cheddar cheese soup (Montreal marketplace), chicken and coconut soup with mushrooms, lemongrass and ginger (Bangkok, Thailand marketplace) and Mealie soup with crabmeat and chili oil (Capetown, South Africa marketplace)

And here is this year's entertainment lineup:

• Sept. 25-27 Big Bad Voodoo Daddy ("You & Me and The • • Bottle Makes Three (Tonight)")
• Sept. 28-29 Richard Marx ("Hold On to the Nights")
• Sept. 30-Oct. 3 Starship starring Mickey Thomas ("We Built This City")
• Oct. 4-6 En Vogue ("Free Your Mind")
• Oct. 7-8 Better Than Ezra ("Good")
• Oct. 9-11 Sister Hazel ("All for You")
• Oct. 12-13 Kool & The Gang ("Celebration")
• Oct. 14-16 Spyro Gyra ("Morning Dance")
• Oct. 17-18 Jon Secada ("Just Another Day")
• Oct. 19-20 Sister Sledge ("We Are Family")
• Oct. 21-22 Vanessa Carlton ("A Thousand Miles")
• Oct. 23-25 Taylor Dayne ("Tell It to My Heart")
• Oct. 26-28 Boyz II Men ("Motownphilly")
• Oct. 29-31 John Waite ("Missing You")
• Nov. 1-2 Taylor Hicks ("Do I Make You Proud")
• Nov. 3-5 Billy Ocean ("Caribbean Queen")
• Nov. 6-8 Los Lobos ("La Bamba")

If you have already taken the plunge into the 2009 Food & Wine Festival let us know what you thought of it in the comments below.