UKIP – couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery, or a carnival in Croydon for that matter. After Nigel Farage's disastrous radio appearance on Leading Britain's Conversation, the party intended to celebrate all things UKIP today with a vibrant street party in Croydon, complete with steel band, and really drum home (sorry) the idea that UKIP is a political party in love with Britain's beautiful melting pot of cultures. Actually, some of their best friends are....blah...blah.

But there's been a hitch down in Croydon. The steel band Endurance have refused to play, claiming that they had been misled by the party. They told a local journalist that they'd been booked by UKIP MEP Winston McKenzie who didn't mention anything about UKIP. Once Endurance found out that the carnival was an event intended to enhance the ailing reputation of the controversial political party, they promptly packed up their gear and went home. One of the steel drummers, Marlon Hibbert, says that he was told by McKenzie that they'd be playing at an event for a nearby shop. LIES!

Now, amidst a cloud of steel band controversy, Nigel Farage has backed out of making an appearance at the carnival – which to be honest sounds like a pretty awful party anyway. Farage has claimed that it's "too dangerous" for him to appear, such is the level of resentment for him and his cronies at his own shindig. The UKIP leader was expected to speak at 3pm in an attempt to clear up some of the remarks he made last week when he said that "you'd be concerned if a group of Romanians moved in next door." Moved to apologise on Sunday, Farage spoke of the "real problem of Romanian criminality."

The UKIP street party in Croydon is being described on Twitter as "totally and utterly bizarre."

You can read our blow by blow account of Nigel Farage's catastrophic/controversial radio appearance last week here.