ATHENS, Ga. >> Juliana Hartley had a peak Athens experience on Thursday.

The University of Georgia senior saw Michael Stipe, frontman of the band R.E.M. that famously formed here in the 1980s. Stipe sightings are common because he lives here part time. But Hartley witnessed something few have seen the past two decades — Stipe performing live.

“It was really surreal,” Hartley said “I was looking around and asking myself, ‘How did I get here?’”

Stipe sang for roughly 15 minutes in front of a crowd of around 400 people at a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris. He performed four songs, including two from R.E.M.’s 1985 album “Fables of the Reconstruction”: “Driver 8” and “Wendell Gee.”

Hearing “Wendell Gee,” a song R.E.M. rarely performed before it amicably disbanded in 2011, brought Kristen Morales to tears. She last saw the band play in 1996 and had all but given up on seeing Stipe sing live again.

“I was always hoping, but I had resigned myself to the fact that it probably wasn’t going to happen,” the longtime Athens resident said.

In June, R.E.M. performed together for the first time in 15 years at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York. The last time the band performed in its hometown was in 2006.

Since then, the band’s other three members — Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry — have played on stages in Athens, sometimes together.