Yebo Millionaires Gold Cup National Ballroom and Latin American Dance Championships - one of South Africa’s most established and glamorous dancing showcase events - returns to Durban and will be held on September 6, as part of the Celebrate Durban season.

The Gold Cup is a respected dance championship where dancers compete for top awards. Over 100 couples will take part and the event starts mid morning with the star grade dancers, progressing to the top couples in the evening. The championship dancers will present all the feathers and glitz of top-notch ballroom and Latin American dancing.

The event has enjoyed various incarnations – from the Gold Cup Latin American Championship National Ballroom, to the Latin American Dance Championships to its present title: the Yebo Millionaires Gold Cup National Ballroom and Latin American Dance Championships.

The event has been running since 1949 and is known as being one of the few events which has always been multi-cultural even at a time when there were few such interracial dance opportunities available to South African dance enthusiasts. Initially it was held in the Durban City Hall, moving across to the Durban Exhibition Centre in 1995. It is significant that it returns to its original “home” for this year’s event. The Gold Cup is known for being one of the country’s top competitions which attracted many of the country’s top dancers to Durban. Its mission has always been to “Strive for dancing excellence”.

Adjudicators include Strictly Come Dancing’s Tyrone Watkins, Salome Sechele, Dave Campbell and Lillian Phororo as well as Jessie Liddell, Miranda Botha and Neville Matjie.

Yebo Millionaires Gold Cup National Ballroom and Latin American Dance Championships is part of the city’s annual Celebrate Durban season which sees virtually 60 events being held throughout the city during August and September.