The Post-Gazette breaks word that the Ellsworth festival in Shadyside is gone.

When it opens on Walnut Street Saturday, it will be the first time in 10 years that the Shadyside Art Festival won’t have any competition from the funkier bunch on Ellsworth Avenue.

The festival on Ellsworth has pulled out of the festival sweepstakes, mostly because its street-level organizer, Richard Parsakian, has been busy with other projects and is ready for a break from the event’s demands.

How Parsakian, of the vintage clothing boutique Eons, got involved in the first place is a long, twisted tale. The Shadyside Arts Festival began in 1970 as a “peace, love and waterbeds” scene amid the hippie haven of Walnut Street. Edward D’Allessandro, a clothing retailer, took control of the festival in year two and ran it until 1998, when the Shadyside Chamber of Commerce opted to hand it over to Howard Alan Events, a Plantation, Fla.-based company that produces 45 festivals nationwide.

“At the time,” Howard Alan says, “the show was really declining. What we wanted to do was upgrade it, get rid of the entertainment and food, and bring it back to a world-class art show.”

D’Allessandro countered in ’98 with a more ‘Burgh-flavored festival on Ellsworth, pitting it as “the Primanti’s sandwich of arts vs. the Art McDonald’s.” D’Allessandro survived there for four years before the Ellsworth Business Association voted to take control, citing poor quality and management.

In 2002, when two gallery owners took over as festival co-chairs on Ellsworth, D’Allessandro migrated to Mellon Park for a third festival that never made it through the weekend.

Two years later, Parsakian stepped in, and it became the Ellsworth Music Dance & Arts Showcase, an event that placed greater emphasis on performance than crafts.