Sud, Jensen and the Flips out of UP Fair lineup after sexual misconduct claims

MANILA, Philippines – Unlike in the previous years, Filipino bands Sud and Jensen and the Flips will not be performing at the University of the Philippines Fair scheduled for February 13 to 17.

The UP Fair organizing committee and its organization night handlers unanimously decided to drop the two bands from their lineup after allegations of sexual misconduct against some members surfaced. (READ: What’s going on? A timeline of the indie music scene’s sexual misconduct scandal)

“We do not tolerate this culture and behavior in our university, and we hope that we continue to embody UP’s values of honor and excellence as we showcase Filipino talent to a wide audience” the UP Fair organizers said in a statement relesed Thursday night, November 23. 

Aimed at celebrating Filipino culture through a music festival, the UP Fair is the student-led week-long concert held annually at the Sunken Garden in UP Diliman. The music festival gathers up to 8,000 to 12,000 concert goers every night.

UP Fair is held to raise funds for specific advocacies or beneficiaries. For its 2018 run, proceeds will be given to rehabilitation and recovery efforts in Marawi City, where a war with local terrorists has just ended after 5 months.

Netizens welcomed the statement shared by UP Fair organizers on their social media accounts.

Suds and Jensen and the Flips have since responded to the allegations. Jensen and the Flips apologized for their actions, and acknowledged that an apology would not be enough.

“An apology will never be enough to make up for all of the things that have been done in the past. We know the things we did wrong; rest assured we have and will continue to work on being better individuals moving forward to ensure that such situations will not happen again,” they said.

On Facebook, Sud also apologized for actions of members while also noting that some of the allegations against them were not true.

“We are sorry. It was never our intention for our actions to come across the way they did. We recognize we have no say whether they were violated by our actions and we put them in a position they were not comfortable in, and for that we will accept the repercussions of what we did,” they said.

Jensen and the Flips has also been removed from the lineup of the yearend gig “The Rest Is Noise” following claims by several women that some band members showed sexually inappropriate behavior.  – Rappler.com