I have managed a handful of awards at such contests, and like Earl have been a finalist at South Florida. I find them to be a decent way to get heard (though not by the A&R types) and more importantly to hear and learn from what other folks are doing. These things are so subjective that you have to take them with several grains of salt -- but from an audience standpoint I find them to be an interesting format for hearing a bunch of different folks and styles in a short amount of time. Are you going to land your bug break in one of these? Depends on the venue. Kerrville is kind of the holy grail. To be a new folk finalist there is a potential career launcher. Merle Fest is another one (Gillian Welsh won there a few years back)...

pg