diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 8123d5b2eef..4b4f0ca3aff 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-Release 5.0.0 (in development)
-==============================
+Release 5.0.0 beta1 (released May 09, 2022)
+===========================================
 
 Dependencies
 ------------
@@ -116,30 +116,9 @@ Bugs fixed
 * #10318: ``:prepend:`` option of :rst:dir:`literalinclude` directive does not
   work with ``:dedent:`` option
 
-Testing
---------
-
 Release 4.5.1 (in development)
 ==============================
 
-Dependencies
-------------
-
-Incompatible changes
---------------------
-
-Deprecated
-----------
-
-Features added
---------------
-
-Bugs fixed
-----------
-
-Testing
---------
-
 Release 4.5.0 (released Mar 28, 2022)
 =====================================
 
diff --git a/sphinx/__init__.py b/sphinx/__init__.py
index 088b8f568f3..c3ec8a2e306 100644
--- a/sphinx/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/__init__.py
@@ -21,8 +21,8 @@
 warnings.filterwarnings('ignore', 'The frontend.Option class .*',
                         DeprecationWarning, module='docutils.frontend')
 
-__version__ = '5.0.0+'
-__released__ = '5.0.0'  # used when Sphinx builds its own docs
+__version__ = '5.0.0b1'
+__released__ = '5.0.0b1'  # used when Sphinx builds its own docs
 
 #: Version info for better programmatic use.
 #:
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
 #:
 #: .. versionadded:: 1.2
 #:    Before version 1.2, check the string ``sphinx.__version__``.
-version_info = (5, 0, 0, 'final', 0)
+version_info = (5, 0, 0, 'beta', 1)
 
 package_dir = path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__))