diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index d17d29def..dab444fe4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
-2.8.x
------
+2.8.1.dev
+---------
 
 - (experimental) adapt more SEMVER style versioning and change meaning of 
   master branch in git repo: "master" branch now keeps the bugfixes, changes 
diff --git a/_pytest/__init__.py b/_pytest/__init__.py
index e1978cb35..1ceaa2760 100644
--- a/_pytest/__init__.py
+++ b/_pytest/__init__.py
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 #
-__version__ = '2.8.0'
+__version__ = '2.8.1.dev1'