"EXIT important for Serbia's image abroad"

If this festival is so successful (and it is), then why is government money needed at all?

EXIT sucks money from the budget: I've read it is $1.5 million a year. It also brings in drugs and prostitution.
Serbia doesn't make money off the backpacking-hippie young people (university students) who don't have much to spend. They live in tents, and drink cheap beer and eat cheap food.
Serbs and Serbia are still bashed and threatened - even if there is a few bones thrown to Serbs for the EXIT festival.
Recently there was news of an EXIT founder involved in a recruitment and training scheme of Cuban musicians (who'd played at EXIT) for U.S./CIA political games against Cuba.

If this festival is so successful (and it is), then why is government money needed at all?

EXIT sucks money from the budget: I've read it is $1.5 million a year. It also brings in drugs and prostitution.
Serbia doesn't make money off the backpacking-hippie young people (university students) who don't have much to spend. They live in tents, and drink cheap beer and eat cheap food.
Serbs and Serbia are still bashed and threatened - even if there is a few bones thrown to Serbs for the EXIT festival.
Recently there was news of an EXIT founder involved in a recruitment and training scheme of Cuban musicians (who'd played at EXIT) for U.S./CIA political games against Cuba.