diff --git a/changelog.txt b/changelog.txt
index 1322dac3c6..07d1c56e9b 100644
--- a/changelog.txt
+++ b/changelog.txt
@@ -3,6 +3,29 @@ Hibernate 6 Changelog
 
 Note: Please refer to JIRA to learn more about each issue.
 
+Changes in 6.6.0.Alpha1 (April 25, 2024)
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+https://hibernate.atlassian.net/projects/HHH/versions/32271
+
+** Bug
+    * [HHH-17969] - NPE copying SQM tree for criteria delete statement with null predicate
+
+** Improvement
+    * [HHH-17999] - Avoid runtime reflection for org.hibernate.jdbc.Expectation
+    * [HHH-17993] - Metamodel processing on bootstrap: avoid retrying same metamodel class name multiple times
+    * [HHH-17991] - Reduce overhead from @DialectOverride discovery
+    * [HHH-17988] - MetadataContext should consistently use ClassLoaderService
+    * [HHH-17987] - Improve allocation rate of ReflectHelper#setterMethodOrNull
+    * [HHH-17980] - Excessive contention during getter identification in the ByteBuddy enhancer
+    * [HHH-17954] - StatelessSession should no longer ignore changes to collections
+    * [HHH-17824] - Extend usage spectrum of @Jpa to the test method level
+
+** New Feature
+    * [HHH-17955] - Bean validation and StatelessSession
+    * [HHH-17818] - Add new ConcreteProxy annotation
+
+
 Changes in 6.4.1.Final (December 15, 2023)
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/gradle/version.properties b/gradle/version.properties
index c5ef360faa..da996189ea 100644
--- a/gradle/version.properties
+++ b/gradle/version.properties
@@ -1 +1 @@
-hibernateVersion=6.6.0-SNAPSHOT
\ No newline at end of file
+hibernateVersion=6.6.0.Alpha1
\ No newline at end of file