The Bookstore hosted its first ever Grad Fest on Friday, May 19, offering students package deals on caps and gowns and diploma frames, amongst other graduation memorabilia.

“Yesterday we sold 111 caps and gowns and packages in different ways,” Julie Bourlier, director of the bookstore, who has worked at El Camino for almost 10 years, said. “For the first time doing it, it’s been very successful.”

The director of the Bookstore said that she would host the event again in future years.

“I’m pleasantly surprised because, I mean, a diploma frame can be expensive,” Bourlier said. “A lot of time students can only afford a cap, gown, and tassel, but others have been enjoying the discounts. It’s a very exciting time for everybody.”

Besides the essential graduation items, additional vendors set up in the Bookstore selling their own graduation-related items.

“(The festival) just answers a lot of questions students have at once,” Bourlier said. “I’m able to have my vendors, the class rings, the photographer, the commencement flowers, I’m able to have them all here at once time.”

One vendor was taking orders and handing out reserevation forms for commencement flowers.

“They look beautiful,” Tiana Dudley, a sales representative for Commencement Flowers, said. “It’s a wonderful addition to the cap and gown.”

Vendors were also taking orders for class rings.

“It symbolizes your achievement more than anything,” Wendy Garcia, a worker with Herff Jones, said. “Announcements are cool, you get to use them as invitations, but a ring is something you’ll keep forever.”

As for students who missed the Grad Fest, the opportunity to buy graduation essentials is not lost.

“We will have caps and gowns until the day of graduation,” Bourlier said. “Until the hour before graduation.”

Graduating students who chose to walk will have until the day of commencement, Friday, June 9, to purchase their caps and gowns.