Every 2 years there’s the World Championships, plus lots of national championships on the alternate years, and loads of smaller competitions whenever people want to host them.
There’s no direct connection between the events – you don’t have to place in a local competition to be able to enter the national championships, or anything like that. If you want to take part in any beard competition, anywhere in the world, just buy a ticket and show up.
Sometimes they’re in a fancy hotel ballroom, sometimes they’re in a pub. Sometimes there’s glamorous hosts, sometimes it’s a beardy bloke. Sometimes there’s panels of actual judges, sometimes the people in the pub are asked to vote for their favourites.