Those already confirmed include French electro-dance duo Zombie-Zombie, Hong Kong singer-songwriter Gloria Tang and local indie faves Sodagreen and 88 Balaz. Mainland retro rockers Queen Sea Big Shark will play if they get permission from the central government, while Taiwanese rock babe Faith Yang Nai-wen is listed as probable, and groups from Switzerland, Japan and Korea are also likely to be announced.

Will that rather scattered lineup be enough to draw 100,000 fans? And just why is the concert free anyway?

Almost a decade after starting out as an indie rock party at the beach, Hohaiyan has come under control of the Taipei county government, which uses the event as an symbol of its public service, a magnet for corporate sponsorship and generally a phenomenon in itself. Three days of free performances just metres from the lapping waves of the cool, blue Pacific during the heat of summer are enough attract the hordes. But expanding the event to such a scale could not have been done without broader appeal, through such additions as a full night market transplanted onto the beach and, last year, a sponsored stage for girls in bikinis and bad techno.

'The government feels it's a culture festival,' says Arthur Chen Yan-hao, an independent music programmer contracted by the event. 'Other cities in Taiwan have free festivals, like the Yingge Pottery Festival and the Pingdong Black Tuna Festival, and those are free, so Fulong Beach has a music festival, and it should be free too.'

Bands competing for the Indie Rock Awards say they don't mind the ma-and-pa multitudes, although they sometimes find the attention a little strange.

'We come to Hohaiyan because of all the music festivals in Taiwan [including the underground purist Spring Scream and mainstream rocker fest Formoz] it has the most people and the most publicity,' says Gao Xiao-gao, lead singer of White Eyes, an art punk band entering the Indie Rock Awards for the second year in a row.

'We're basically an indie band and don't have any intention of going pop, so a lot of people will just look at us with absolutely no idea what our music is about. But it's still an opportunity,' she says.

And the prize money, is that important? 'Hell, yes!' says Gao.

The Indie Rock Awards offers a top prize of NT$200,000 (HK$51,388) awarded by jurors that this year include the head of MTV Taiwan, recording artist Deserts Chang, and a clutch of music critics and underground scene luminaries.

Both the competition and Hohaiyan were originally the brainchild of '43 Zhang', founder of Taiwan Colors Music, one of Taiwan's older indie labels. Starting out in 2000, he was trying to find a way to give the island's growing ranks of underground bands more exposure.

'People called this kind of music 'non-mainstream' or 'underground', but I didn't like those labels,' Zhang was once quoted as saying. 'I thought we needed a new way to describe it, something that could be commercial if it wanted to.'

So Zhang chose 'indie' as the buzzword and then went on to use the festival's growing support to bring it to the mainstream, where it now manages to grab headlines every year.

As for the idea of the competition itself, rockers tend to have mixed feelings, though they generally admit some benefits. 'In the first place, I don't feel it's really possible for bands to compete. I mean you have acoustic folk and metal and everything else, so how are you going to judge,' asks Chen.

'But giving young bands a chance on the big stage is definitely a good thing,' he says. 'It draws lots of producers and record company people, who all come out and watch. Cheer Chen, Deserts Chang, Wonfu and Sodagreen all got noticed on the Hohaiyan stage. It certainly has had an effect.'

One of this year's highlights will be France's Zombie-Zombie, a two-man electro team named by NME as one of the 'top 10 new bands to see this summer'. The members are Cosmic Neman on drums and Etienne Jaumet on all sorts of old synthesisers and rare analogue sound equipment, with classic zombie movie soundtracks in burning hot sets of dance music.

'We love dancing and we share a passion for collecting vintage instruments,' says Jaumet. 'The sound they make reminds me of the soundtracks to the horror movies my parents didn't let me see when I was young. Maybe that's why this kind of music impressed itself so much onto my unconscious.'

Think Air meets Night of the Living Dead, and you'll get some idea of what you're in for. Then imagine it playing before tens of thousands of Taiwanese on the beach eating barbecued squid, watching dancing girls and listing to the spectral, rocking dance tracks. If you can do that, count yourself ready for Hohaiyan 2008.