The stadium at Paly High School was burning. Their Hollywood Bowl graduation is bittersweet

It is one of the most famous stages in Los Angeles. On Wednesday afternoon, 740 graduates from Palisades Charter High School had the opportunity to travel through it.

After a fire caused by a high school that was severely damaged by the Palisades Fire in one school year, students said they were honored to graduate from the Hollywood Bowl. However, the venue was the Beatles, Franklin D.

But the students and staff of Paly High School have learned to adjust. The fire in January covered their lives and destroyed many students’ homes, some of whom left the school. Some faculty and school board members also lost their homes.

The students initially returned to school online and later resumed an in-person class in the Santa Monica building that had lived in Sears. After months of practice, seniors’ graduation ceremony on the stage of the stars is a cap stone, which illustrates their resilience.

Prior to the ceremony, Senior Cash Allen said that graduating in the bowl was “bitter and bittersweet” rather than the stadium by the sea, where he played for the Pali football team.

“There are a lot of memories, so it’s absolutely sad to not be able to complete the four-year high school in the field,” Allen said. “But I think everyone is grateful for the opportunity we had to go in the Hollywood Bowl.”

“I can’t even imagine the adversity you face – obviously the fire in January brought us here,” said Steve Kerr, coach of Pali alumnus Golden State Warriors, whom he said at graduation. “Although this is a good choice.”

The graduates filled high-end box seats, with several students’ speeches and videotapes from Governor Gavin Newsom. He thanked the students and urged them to continue saying, “The future is not only something to experience, but it is to be shown.”

Entertainment spokesman Billy Crystal, a longtime Palisades resident whose house burned down in January, joked that students were joking about the school year ending in an “abandoned Sears Building” where he “had bought a washing machine playmaker.”

Students line up at the Palisades Senior Graduation Ceremony at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

Crystal said all the “chaos and tragedies” of the Palisades Fire provide students with important life lessons: “Grow out of pain; out of despair, out of despair, joy.”

Veadictorian Annalisa Hurd recalls how she used to be so sure about the future. But now she knows that “accident” becomes “must be unfavorable”.

“Sometimes we focus on one route with lasers on just one route, which means we miss another route that might be faster, more scenic or take us entirely to a brand new destination,” she said.

Principal Pamela Magee said the administrator talked to venues across Los Angeles on the list, which is the bowl, owned by Los Angeles County and run by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

Maggie said that as Pali’s interest spread, the Philharmonic’s board of directors learned about the school’s situation. She said the organization offered to “gift” to high school on the bowl.

“The people we talk to are ultimately the people in the bowl, and they get licenses and leases,” Maggie said. “They said to others, ‘We want to do this for your school.’”

Maji said the school paid only a “small usage fee” for the venue. “For normal rents, it's a gift,” she said.

Other parts of the program come together organically with Los Angeles school board member Nick Melvoin, helping secure some of the speakers, including Crystal.

“People are trying to make it work,” Melvoin said at the start of school, joking in his speech that the bowl could be called “Palidong.”

Nancy Fracchiolla, a Pali Theatre teacher who has been at the school’s graduation ceremony for a long time, said the ceremony brought additional meaning to her. Fracchiolla lost her home in the fire and retired after working in school for 13 years.

The bowl brings exciting gifts to Fracchiolla, even if it’s a frustrating change.

“It's a little daunting,” she said. “Because it's almost like I thought: 'Oh, this is my last year. I locked this graduation stuff up. No, you're not. You really don't!' Transparent

The ceremony was performed in the usual tradition: student music performances, a series of speakers praising the graduates, and the call of names.

Some graduate families are content to call the celebration “normal.”

“I think they're like any other high school class, i.e. – everything most of these kids have experienced – the most beautiful thing they could have,” said Isabelle Rust, the sister of the two graduates.

Guests have limited time to absorb the atmosphere of the picturesque venue.

Fracchiolla said Bowl officials told her that graduate participants needed to quickly evacuate because staff there needed to prepare for Thursday's concert for soul singer Leon Bridges.

“They said, 'Just make sure you tell the seniors to take pictures beforehand, because when they leave graduation, there will be another thing for the Marquis.'

Rashad Rhodes, assistant coach of the junior varsity football team at Pali High, said it was surreal to see the school community reunion as a celebration – and proved the motto “Pali Strong”. He said the graduation ceremony “shows people stay here.”

Senior Allen said his high school graduate was held in 2021 at Palley Football Stadium because outdoor venues allow social distant events during the 19 pandemics. Now, he has gone through two start-up trainings that are burning due to change.

“This is more class than most people,” he said.

Finally, like seniors everywhere, graduates threw their plasterboards into the air, and the crowd cheered for the 2025 Barry High School class.