Each year, South by Southwest hosts thousands of musicians, draws hundreds of thousands of people, and generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Austin. While many criticize the multimodal event for various reasons, one holy grail feature makes SXSW worth the traffic, lines and week of insanity: the free shows.

Each March, SXSW’s plethora of free live music confirms the best things in life are free; and this year looks very promising.

The Free Concerts on Town Lake series has played host to a number of killer shows over the years, and some flops. In terms of memorable performances, The Strokes packed Auditorium Shores in 2011, bringing in an estimated 30,000 people and ending with fireworks during “Last Night.”

Another remarkable show was The Shins last year, just days before the release of their wildly successful fourth album “Port of Morrow.” The relative size of the crowd marked a major turning point in the band’s career, which has skyrocketed since the release of PoM, leading to primetime spots at heavy-hitting festies like Bonnaroo and ACL.

Some serious fails include shows like The Counting Crows last year. Lead singer Adam Duritz either had too much to drink before going onstage or was experiencing the degeneration of basic cognitive skills; either way, the performance was dismal.

This year, however, Free Concerts on Town Lake is putting together what is set to be one of the best shows in the history of the series.

On Friday, March 15, Jim James, Divine Fits, and The Flaming Lips will be playing Auditorium Shores in succession. For free. The Flaming Lips speak for themselves, and their fan base in Austin is massive.

On top of the cult following of the Lips, the successes of last year’s Divine Fits’ debut, “A Thing Called Divine Fits,” and this month’s first solo album from Jim James, “Regions of Light and Sound of God,” guarantee that the crowd will be huge. The gates open at 3:30 p.m., so get there early.

If that godlike offering is not enough, this year’s free BrooklynVegan Day Parties look phenomenal. Notable acts for Wednesday include Tegan and Sara, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and Jovanotti.

Thursday, the shows really blow up with The Airborne Toxic Event, Diamond Rings, Wild Belle, and The Joy Formidable. On Saturday, Alt-J is playing for free. Billy Bragg later in the day will probably be great.

Saturday hits hard with The Zombies, which is exciting and probably going to be the most packed of all the Day Party shows. The Ra Ra Riot set later that day is also not to be missed.

Despite the flack that SXSW takes from uptight Austinites, it offers some of the best free live music anywhere. Even if you have never heard of these bands, go check them out.

After all, what better do you have to do with your Spring Break? It is all deliciously free.