diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 9547c8320..d890d2c68 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-Release 3.0.0 (in development)
-==============================
+Release 3.0.0 beta1 (released Mar 23, 2020)
+===========================================
 
 Dependencies
 ------------
@@ -149,9 +149,6 @@ Bugs fixed
 * #7290: sphinx-build: Ignore bdb.BdbQuit when handling exceptions
 * #6240: napoleon: Attributes and Methods sections ignore :noindex: option
 
-Testing
---------
-
 Release 2.4.5 (in development)
 ==============================
 
diff --git a/sphinx/__init__.py b/sphinx/__init__.py
index 4889f35d5..aae7e687a 100644
--- a/sphinx/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/__init__.py
@@ -32,8 +32,8 @@ if 'PYTHONWARNINGS' not in os.environ:
 warnings.filterwarnings('ignore', "'U' mode is deprecated",
                         DeprecationWarning, module='docutils.io')
 
-__version__ = '3.0.0+'
-__released__ = '3.0.0'  # used when Sphinx builds its own docs
+__version__ = '3.0.0b1'
+__released__ = '3.0.0b1'  # used when Sphinx builds its own docs
 
 #: Version info for better programmatic use.
 #:
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ __released__ = '3.0.0'  # used when Sphinx builds its own docs
 #:
 #: .. versionadded:: 1.2
 #:    Before version 1.2, check the string ``sphinx.__version__``.
-version_info = (3, 0, 0, 'beta', 0)
+version_info = (3, 0, 0, 'beta', 1)
 
 package_dir = path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__))