diff --git a/script/release/Dockerfile b/script/release/Dockerfile
deleted file mode 100644
index e5af676a5..000000000
--- a/script/release/Dockerfile
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,15 +0,0 @@
-FROM python:3.6
-RUN mkdir -p /src && pip install -U Jinja2==2.10 \
-    PyGithub==1.39 \
-    pypandoc==1.4 \
-    GitPython==2.1.9 \
-    requests==2.18.4 \
-    twine==1.11.0 && \
-    apt-get update && apt-get install -y pandoc
-
-VOLUME /src/script/release
-WORKDIR /src
-COPY . /src
-RUN python setup.py develop
-ENTRYPOINT ["python", "script/release/release.py"]
-CMD ["--help"]
diff --git a/script/release/README.md b/script/release/README.md
index 65883f5d3..f7f911e53 100644
--- a/script/release/README.md
+++ b/script/release/README.md
@@ -9,8 +9,7 @@ The following things are required to bring a release to a successful conclusion
 
 ### Local Docker engine (Linux Containers)
 
-The release script runs inside a container and builds images that will be part
-of the release.
+The release script builds images that will be part of the release.
 
 ### Docker Hub account
 
@@ -20,11 +19,9 @@ following repositories:
 - docker/compose
 - docker/compose-tests
 
-### A local Python environment
+### Python
 
-While most of the release script is running inside a Docker container,
-fetching local Docker credentials depends on the `docker` Python package
-being available locally.
+The release script is written in Python and requires Python 3.3 at minimum.
 
 ### A Github account and Github API token
 
@@ -59,6 +56,18 @@ Said account needs to be a member of the maintainers group for the
 Moreover, the `~/.pypirc` file should exist on your host and contain the
 relevant pypi credentials.
 
+The following is a sample `.pypirc` provided as a guideline:
+
+```
+[distutils]
+index-servers =
+    pypi
+
+[pypi]
+username = user
+password = pass
+```
+
 ## Start a feature release
 
 A feature release is a release that includes all changes present in the
diff --git a/script/release/release.sh b/script/release/release.sh
index ee75b13a6..7947316e0 100755
--- a/script/release/release.sh
+++ b/script/release/release.sh
@@ -1,36 +1,15 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-docker image inspect compose/release-tool > /dev/null
-if test $? -ne 0; then
-    docker build -t compose/release-tool -f $(pwd)/script/release/Dockerfile $(pwd)
+if test -d ./.release-venv; then
+    true
+else
+    ./script/release/setup-venv.sh
 fi
 
-if test -z $GITHUB_TOKEN; then
-    echo "GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable must be set"
-    exit 1
+args=$*
+
+if test -z $args; then
+    args="--help"
 fi
 
-if test -z $BINTRAY_TOKEN; then
-    echo "BINTRAY_TOKEN environment variable must be set"
-    exit 1
-fi
-
-if test -z $(python -c "import docker; print(docker.version)" 2>/dev/null); then
-    echo "This script requires the 'docker' Python package to be installed locally"
-    exit 1
-fi
-
-hub_credentials=$(python -c "from docker import auth; cfg = auth.load_config(); print(auth.encode_header(auth.resolve_authconfig(cfg, 'docker.io')).decode('ascii'))")
-
-docker run -it \
-    -e GITHUB_TOKEN=$GITHUB_TOKEN \
-    -e BINTRAY_TOKEN=$BINTRAY_TOKEN \
-    -e SSH_AUTH_SOCK=$SSH_AUTH_SOCK \
-    -e HUB_CREDENTIALS=$hub_credentials \
-    --mount type=bind,source=$(pwd),target=/src \
-    --mount type=bind,source=$HOME/.gitconfig,target=/root/.gitconfig \
-    --mount type=bind,source=/var/run/docker.sock,target=/var/run/docker.sock \
-    --mount type=bind,source=$HOME/.ssh,target=/root/.ssh \
-    --mount type=bind,source=/tmp,target=/tmp \
-    -v $HOME/.pypirc:/root/.pypirc \
-    compose/release-tool $*
+./.release-venv/bin/python ./script/release/release.py $args
diff --git a/script/release/setup-venv.sh b/script/release/setup-venv.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..d3d3f9a42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/script/release/setup-venv.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+if test -z $PYTHONBIN; then
+  PYTHONBIN=$(which python3)
+  if test -z $PYTHONBIN; then
+    PYTHONBIN=$(which python)
+  fi
+fi
+
+VERSION=$($PYTHONBIN -c "import sys; print('{}.{}'.format(*sys.version_info[0:2]))")
+if test $(echo $VERSION | cut -d. -f1) -lt 3; then
+  echo "Python 3.3 or above is required"
+fi
+
+if test $(echo $VERSION | cut -d. -f2) -lt 3; then
+  echo "Python 3.3 or above is required"
+fi
+
+$PYTHONBIN -m venv ./.release-venv
+
+VENVBINS=./.release-venv/bin
+
+$VENVBINS/pip install -U Jinja2==2.10 \
+    PyGithub==1.39 \
+    pypandoc==1.4 \
+    GitPython==2.1.9 \
+    requests==2.18.4 \
+    twine==1.11.0
+
+$VENVBINS/python setup.py develop