A SEA of red and black has immersed Bournemouth as the town celebrates Cherries' historic promotion.

Young fans at St Thomas Garnet’s School in Parkwood Road, Boscombe, even held a special red and black themed event yesterday after their team all but secured Premier League status for the first time on Monday night.

The children were all urged to come to school dressed in club colours and they had a special assembly where assistant head teacher Gordon Scott told them about the club’s history, recounting the many emotional highs and lows it has experienced.

The pupils were then all given red and black balloons and had a big group photograph in the playground, where they showed their support by joining in with some noisy football chants.

And in the town centre the club colours are donning three miles of bunting to mark the start of official celebrations.

Lisa Tucker, chairman of town centre Business Improvement District, which arranged the decorations, said: “Thanks to AFC Bournemouth’s success, this is going to put our town on the world stage and the impact will only be a positive one with businesses seeing more visitors to Bournemouth in the coming months, which will boost the town centre economy.

“I am delighted to see the different stakeholders of the town working together to create the celebrations and would like to thank the teams who have worked so hard to make this happen.”

And the council’s executive director for the environment and economy, Bill Cotton, said workers had been out since first light yesterday to pay a fitting tribute to the team.

He added: “We know the whole town is behind them and are very happy to be able to lend a hand to make that support as visible as possible.”

On Bank Holiday Monday Eddie Howe’s squad will celebrate with a seafront open top bus parade.

The Premier League-bound stars will begin at Boscombe Pier at 11am before making their way along the promenade to finish just east of Bournemouth Pier.

Fans are being encouraged to arrive early and make use of all the vantage points.

Cherries will be hoping they have even more to celebrate after today’s game against Charlton, which could yet see them beat first-placed Watford to the title.