there was a competition for the best sea song,at Scarborough sea fest this year the winner was Wendy Arrowsmith.
Competitions do not destroy evertything that is good about music.
   I think that is a sweeping generalisation,last year EFDSS ran a song writing competition,I have not heard any stories that bitterness arose in either[Seafest or Cheltenham Efdss] of these two competitions.
it really depends upon the attitude of the competitors, most adults are mature enough to realise that all judging is subjective.
I am quite closely involved with children who enter competitions,I had a pupil who won the all ireland CCE harmonica competition,this year he didnt progress beyond the Munster,he is not bitter, because his parents and his teacher[ME] have over the years,explained that Winning is not the be all and end all ,that learning from adjudicators comments, participating,and all the practice beforehand is just as important,a lot depends upon the parents attitudes,and in my experience the majority of parents handle the situation well.
so we have two different scenarios, competitions for adults and competitions for children.
we also have the spin off from CCE competitions,e .g. the meeting of thousands of musicians in sessions at the fleadhs.
finally competitions can be a way of raising funds for EFDSS,This is of course one reason why CCE will not drop competitions because it brings in a lot of money. Dick Miles