The flags of St Edmund were flying and people gathered in the courtyard of the Cathedral, in Bury St Edmunds - three months prior to the saint’s day.

%image(15309040, type="article-full", alt="Gathering by the statue of St Edmund by the Abbey West Front in Bury St Edmunds for the "We Love Bury St Edmunds" Photobomb the King event on Sunday. PICTURE: Andy Abbott")

Up to 60 attended a photo bomb session on Sunday to help promote St Edmund’s Day which takes place on November 20.

There are now weeks of promotion to get the town to board and to raise the flags and celebrate the day with the plan to get businesses supporting the event.

The mayor of St Edmundsbury Margaret Marks along with councillors Patrick Chung and Tom Murray and members of the Sea Cadet force attended the photo session along with friends and supporters of the We Love Bury St Edmunds! Facebook group.

And former Eurovision winner Anne Marie David also attended and sang an impromptu couple of songs along with Sarah Probert who also entertained the assembled crowd with some of her tunes.

%image(15309041, type="article-full", alt="Gathering by the statue of St Edmund by the Abbey West Front in Bury St Edmunds for the "We Love Bury St Edmunds" Photobomb the King event on Sunday. 1973 Eurovision winner Anne Marie David sings PICTURE: Andy Abbott")

Organising the event was James Sheen, who runs the local Facebook group, and he said that as St Edmund’s Day falls on a Tuesday it is planned to celebrate the weekend prior to this to the following weekend, November 23.

For maximum inpact he is asking for flags to be raised on November 16 and taken down the following Friday.

“We know that in medieval times the cult of St Edmund made our town great as both a focus for pilgrimage but also as a commercial centre,” he said.

This year businesses who offer a discount or special promotion will be featured on a map of the town to encourage greater footfall.

%image(15309042, type="article-full", alt="Gathering by the statue of St Edmund by the Abbey West Front in Bury St Edmunds for the "We Love Bury St Edmunds" Photobomb the King event on Sunday. Singer Sarah Probert PICTURE: Andy Abbott")

We Love Bury St Edmunds! will be gathering information of all of the places who are staging an event for the occasion.

Last year there was a Viking party at the King’s Arms, themed entertainment at Oakes Barn, the Crafty Foxes were crafting in Denny Bros, Moyse’s Hall Museum focused on St Edmunds and the Constitutional Club staged a new play by Ian McCabe and Joanna Hagan-Young, who recited poems at the photo session on Sunday, presented her poem St Edmunds.

Court News, in Glastonbury Road, will be selling flags and bunting which vary in price from £11.99 to £1.75.

St Edmund was the first patron saint of England with his memory uniting warring Anglo Saxons, Danes and Norman into one people.

%image(15309044, type="article-full", alt="Gathering by the statue of St Edmund by the Abbey West Front in Bury St Edmunds for the "We Love Bury St Edmunds" Photobomb the King event on Sunday. PICTURE: Andy Abbott")

He was the last of a line of East Anglia kings and was defeated in battle by the Vikings at Thetford in 869. He chose to sacrifice his life by drawing them away from battle to find him and for refusing to rule as a puppet king under the invaders he was tied to a tree, shot with arrows and beheaded.