Please help! I want to cancel attending a convention as an Artist?
Hi everyone!
Apologies for the long summary.
I have come across a problem and I don't have anyone to genuinely get advice on from as I am a new artist and haven't attended any conventions myself as an artist or visitor. So, I am still trying to navigate this path.
Little background for context, I moved from the UK to Germany and started my artist journey here. I signed up for a convention to attend next year in April as an artist and this convention basically doesn't have any upfront costs to the exhibitor and instead charges 10% of whatever sales you make. With excitement, I was blinded and didn't realise the cancellation clause has no time frame stated and the cancellation penalty is 100 EUR.
The cancellation clause "The exhibitor makes a binding commitment to physically participate in the convention and set up their stand. In the event of an unexcused and culpable failure to appear or a culpable cancellation without legal or contractual justification (e.g., documented acute illness, accident, or other cases of force majeure), a fixed contractual penalty of 100 EUR 100.00 shall become due and payable to the organizer. The exhibitor reserves the right to prove that no damage or significantly less damage was incurred."
While this is not a problem if I just attend but with how currently things are I have realised, my artist journey might not even last till next year as I am already in plans to closing my art business as I have run out of savings and haven't even broke even with how much I have invested and will likely go back to corporate job. So, just after sending the signed contract and within the next 3 days I understood that this is commitment I might not be able to fulfill and contacted the organiser right away and requested cancellation. Please note, I actually hadn't received a confirmation or the signed contract from their end. Hence, I just assumed my cancellation would be accepted since I didn't get any signed contract or anything back before I requested cancellation. Again, the convention is next year in April and I believe it is plenty of time left for them to find other artists.
I do understand that organising an event like convention is not easy so of course I understand the aspect of having a cancellation penalty. So, the organisation said to me they would try to find a solution and I followed up again today regarding the status and they came back saying they haven't been able to find a solution where one of us wouldn't incur losses. This I feel is now just implying I need to pay but they aren't just saying it. I understand I made mistakes myself by not going through the contract thoroughly but I just want to know if anyone can give me advice here on how to resolve this without paying the penalty? Please help.