interestingly enough, it's one of the few fests that keep on bringing new writers to the fandom every year :)
I think DTH is a fest that caters to a slightly different crowd than the usual H/D shipper. Quite a few of the writers and also the community members don't otherwise engage in H/D fandom. I am not quite sure why that is, but yes, I love that out of every DTH fest so far, some new writers have emerged.