"It's not my scene at all but I think it will bring some benefit to the area," the lady of pensionable age is saying, just after we interrupt her in the act of crossing Auchterarder's douce, lengthy High Street.

"It will be disruption for a few days but it's only three days. I think we can live with it. We lived with G8, and that caused tremendous upheaval. And we had the golf last year."

Caught between wishing to ask her more questions and allowing her to cross the street safely - a delivery lorry is coming up behind her - we opt for the latter. We ask if she'd care to give her name, but she declines. Very nicely, it has to be said.

The Perthshire town generally seems to be relaxed about T in the Park, which next weekend takes over Strathallan Castle, three miles down the road. Between 1997 and last year the festival was based at Balado, near Kinross, 18 miles away, but it had to relocate following health and safety concerns about an underground oil pipeline.

Last month, when the festival organisers finally secured a public entertainment licence from Perth & Kinross Council, one Crieff resident was quoted as saying: "There will be 85,000 drunken, high people who will be in no position to look after themselves. It will be the responsibility of others to look after them. This is not a licence for public entertainment, it's a licence for mayhem." (The organisers responded thus: "It is unfair to class everyone who attends T in the Park as irresponsible. We do a massive amount to promote the drink responsibly message.")

If there are any such fears in Auchterarder, they don't seem to be bubbling to the surface. In any event, as our nameless lady was saying, the town has witnessed big occasions before.

The huge G8 summit, at nearby Gleneagles in 2005, was described by one police liaison officer as "the biggest security event since 9/11 ever to take place in this country". One resident said at the time that she'd heard rumours "about police practising for riots, of American Marines being flown in from an aircraft carrier and troublemakers planning to set fire to lorries on the A9." More recently - last September, in fact - the town witnessed the international mega-circus that was the Ryder Cup, also at Gleneagles.

"It's only three days, four days at most," says Alexa Dunlop, who runs a greengrocer's shop in the High Street. "It's definitely not a lot. I think the majority of the people are in favour of it. Anybody I've spoken to is quite happy about it.

"We survived the G8 summit, we survived the Ryder Cup. Surely we can survive T in the Park as well."

"I think it's great for the town," says Kirsty Walker, 28, just up the road at Town Barber, which she runs with her mum, Heather. "It's fantastic - something else coming to Auchterarder. The Ryder Cup wasn't a disturbance at all. We were quiet then, because people were avoiding the town."

She doesn't think there will necessarily be a lot of spin-off trade next weekend: "I believe they're opening up a supermarket down there, so the trade that the Co-operative here might have got, they'll maybe not get as much.

"I think we'll be really quiet over that weekend. But I don't know how many workers are working out there just now - they'll need somewhere to stay, some place to eat, some place to get their hair cut", adds Walker, who hopes to go to the festival's closing day, next Sunday. (She wasn't sure, off the top of her head, who the headliners are: it turns out to be Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds).

The fact that Strathallan is hosting T in the Park has, of course, not been universally welcomed. Many people have posted adverse comments on Facebook, and the Strathallan T Action Group (Stag) was formed to support people who, in the words of its website, "are concerned about the impact of the festival, in terms of wildlife and infrastructure, on a beautiful unspoilt part of Scotland's natural heritage."

Stag insists that the site at Strathallan Castle "is completely different to Balado", consisting of hilly, prime agricultural land, some distance from a main road and home "to many species of protected and rare wildlife."

One definite supporter can be found at the Synergy Cycles shop, which has been selling tickets for the festival. Proprietor Donnie MacLeod, said: "The event's for everybody, for local businesses, the young, the old - in fact, even the disinterested will see the benefits of this once it has been and gone.

"I've lived in Balado for the last five years so I've seen the Kinross circus come in and out of town many times. It has never been anything other than a total success. That's me speaking as someone who lives right on the doorstep.

"The event was hugely well organised and it's really well attended by a good crowd, not just the young by any stretch.

"For a town like Auchterarder, which I see as being better-equipped than Kinross ever was, the whole town will benefit. As a new business in town, we're keen to get behind its aspirations to be known for other things.

"There are some great shops and restaurants and hotels and golf courses in the area," he added.

Selling tickets had allowed Synergy to get behind the festival while bringing more people through the shop's door. It has been worthwhile.

"I've not had a single person come in here, pointing the finger and saying. 'Why are you selling tickets to this event?' Quite the opposite - people are coming in and saying 'well done for being the guys that sell tickets and promotes the event'."

MacLeod will be taking in the festival, but he also has a shop to run. "Given what happened in Kinross, that there's a mid-afternoon exodus into town to stock up on cheap booze and buy cheaper food here and there, we'll try and capitalise on that and once we've shut up, we'll head in for the evening shows."

"We're already getting a lot of enquiries about transport for T in the Park," said one local taxi operator, who declined to be named. "Believe it or not, I think all the businesses in Auchterarder will benefit from T in the Park, with the exception of the mother-of-the-bride shop.

"When you think back to when they had the big event down there [Balado] all these years ago, there were 85,000 [people] in one weekend without the infrastructure we've got now, the town managed it, and everything went well. So I think it will be a good thing for Auchterarder."

The company said it had been taking enquiries from people who had booked themselves into outlying villages like Blackford and Dunning and who need to be ferried to the festival site and back.

Sitting on a bench is Carolyn Dewar, 51. She has been brought home from Italy, where she lives, by a family bereavement.

What does she think of T in the Park taking place, just up the road? "I think it's marvellous. Apparently there's been a lot of protesting about it, and I really don't see what the problem is.

"Listening to the locals that I've seen while I've been here, I don't think it's even going to touch the actual village."

T in the Park is like a mini-Glastonbury, she added. "There'll be a lucky man who's selling wellies next week!"

At the Craigrossie Hotel, David von Geyer said the delay in getting the festival approved had resulted in the hotel receiving some cancellations for festival-related bookings it originally received last summer, "which is a bit annoying, but that's just life."

The hotel has accommodated contractors working on the site, however, and is booked up for next weekend, thanks to music fans who are unwilling to camp out under the stars. "All in all, it's a positive boost," is how von Geyer describes it.

Finally, dentist Keith Hooper ("thirty-nine-and-a-half"), gives us his view. "I think it'll be really good for the local economy and businesses," he says. "Auchterarder seems to be expanding, there's a lot of new houses, a lot of people are coming into the area."

He had heard a lot of positive reactions from his patients. No, he's not planning to take in the music, but he adds: "I think it will be good fun. If there's anybody with toothache, they're more than welcome to come down and get sorted out."

* T in the Park starts on Friday. http://www.tinthepark.com/