They are known as “the Papas”: over 100 white-bearded, “heavy-set” men in khakis or fishermen’s sweaters who are due to enter the annual Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest in Key West, Florida, this week, with the winner announced on 25 July.

Running for 35 years on the island where The Old Man and the Sea author lived during the 1930s, competition for the accolade of “stocky white-bearded man” who most resembles Hemingway is fierce. Preliminary rounds are due to take place at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, where the author used to drink, and the final will be judged by past Papa winners on 25 July. Around 125 entrants are expected.

“Some of these competitors have been coming here for 10, 15, 20 years without winning,” said spokesman Andy Newman. “They still keep coming back and coming back. And there’s no cash prize here.”

Sloppy Joe’s says it is “looking for mature, heavy-set men with a full beard”, but adds that “several young lookalikes have participated, and some have actually made it to the finals.”

It warns contestants: “Know your competition. The lookalikes arrive in Hemingway garb. Some wear safari outfits, khakis, and even the excruciatingly hot fisherman’s woollen turtleneck sweater. Some bring their own cheering squad. Most contestants admit (confidentially) that they may never win, but return year after year for the fellowship.”

Competitors have even formed a Hemingway lookalike society which, promising that it is “much more than a bunch of ‘portly gray bearded old men’”, has set up the Hemingway lookalike scholarship programme for students at Florida Keys Community College.

The competition is just one part of the annual Hemingway Days celebration in Key West, to mark what would have been the author’s 116th birthday on 21 July. Organisers have also lined up a three-day marlin-fishing tournament intended to “recall Hemingway’s devotion to the deep-sea sport”.

The winners of an annual short story competition run by author and Hemingway’s granddaughter Lorian Hemingway at Hemingway’s first Key West residence, Casa Antigua, will be announced. There will also be readings, book signings and the Papas themselves will take part in a “running of the bulls” event, a tongue-in-cheek homage to the author’s love of the bull ring, using bull replicas.

Newman says: “Even though he’s been gone for so long, he’s still an icon down here.”