One hundred thousand Londoners packed Victoria Park to give a clear message to the British National Party in the build-up to the mayoral elections: there is no room for racism in our city.

On the 30th anniversary of the inaugural Rock Against Racism concert, where 80,000 marched from Trafalgar Square to Victoria Park for a now legendary open-air show, the Love Music Hate Racism carnival proved that the spirit of ’78 is alive and kicking.

Among the bands on the bill were indie-rockers Hard-Fi. “It’s the only festival we’re going to do this year as it strikes us as being the most important,” said frontman Richard Archer. Admirable stuff, although one suspects Michael Eavis hasn’t been hassling the boys about whether they would like to headline Glastonbury this year.

Festival monogamists they might be, but many of Hard-Fi’s songs are made for the big stage. Hard To Beat showcased Archer’s punchy vocals, while the hard-up lyrics of Cash Machine struck the right note with the large number of students in the audience.

Hard-Fi, however, were not helped by their mid-afternoon billing. Living For The Weekend would have sent the crowd into a frenzy at 9pm on Friday night; on 3pm on a Sunday, it was met with an understandably more muted reaction.

In between acts, a series of speakers praised multi-culturalism and derided the racist attitudes that threaten to destroy it. As with Live 8, swearing played an increasing role in these communications.

Indeed, by the time The Good, The Bad and The Queen took to the stage, Bob Geldof ’s oratory style would have seemed positively meek by comparison.

At protest gigs such as this, The Good, The Bad And The Queen are at a distinct advantage: they have a member of The Clash in their ranks. Rebel rocker Paul Simonon was on guitar at Victoria Park 30 years ago and appeared on stage to the biggest cheer of the afternoon.

However, the band’s dark, complex songs were a difficult listen. Former Blur frontman Damon Albarn, who heads the ramshackle outfit, has a penchant for sarcastic, disenfranchised pop, and these songs were more sneering than cheering.

Fortunately, a series of rappers joined the group on stage to add some much-needed vibrancy to the set. When they did, it was a triumphant.

This was a true British national party: colourful, vibrant and free to everybody.