Echo Fields grows into major agritourism destination in Westtown

A bigger bet on Westtown

Echo Fields is no longer just a scenic farm on Pine Hill Road. Todd Lyons has spent more than two years turning the 180-acre Town of Minisink property into a seasonal agritourism destination with enough activity to draw families, concertgoers and road-trippers across Orange County and beyond.

Lyons bought the land for $1.2 million and built the business around a simple idea: family, fun and community. That vision now sits on top of a former paving company story, too. Before moving into farming and events, Lyons ran Todd Lyons Paving for 21 years, grew it to 30 employees and then sold it, a career shift that gave him the capital and room to try something far less ordinary in Westtown.

What Echo Fields already offers

The property now functions like a hybrid of farm market, event venue and outdoor recreation site. Visitors can find indoor and outdoor games, a market stocked with produce and local meats, an activity barn, art displays, corn mazes, disc golf and a pumpkin patch. Food trucks, mobile bars and live music give the grounds a festival feel, but the business still keeps its agricultural identity visible in the food and the open land around it.

For the 2026 season, Lyons added a few upgrades that matter far beyond aesthetics. The new amphitheater gives the site a stronger concert footprint, while a repurposed silo now houses four bathrooms, an important piece of infrastructure for larger crowds. He also converted a 1980s Airstream camper into a commercial kitchen serving wood-fired pizza and farm-to-table food, a sign that Echo Fields is trying to capture more spending on site instead of relying only on admissions or one-off visits.

Those additions point to a business that is investing in permanence. This is not a roadside stop that opens once a year and disappears after fall. It is being built to pull in repeat customers over multiple weekends and multiple seasons, with enough amenities to keep people on the property longer and spend more while they are there.

Live music is becoming a main draw

The clearest marker of that ambition is the concert calendar. The Saturday Night Concert Series begins May 2 and runs through October 24, with bands performing every weekend. One of the headliners is Whey Jennings, the grandson of country music legend Waylon Jennings, a booking that signals Echo Fields is reaching for more than a local pickup crowd.

That kind of schedule changes the scale of the operation. Lyons said in July 2024 that he already had nine bands booked for that month, and the June 2024 grand opening showed how quickly the venue was trying to establish itself. A steady stream of live music usually means more cars, more parking pressure and more evening activity, but it also means more chances for restaurants, vendors and nearby businesses to benefit from visitors who come for a show and stay for dinner or dessert.

For Orange County, that matters because event-driven farms often succeed when they become part of a routine, not just a one-time outing. If Echo Fields can keep filling its calendar through late October, it has the kind of programming that can turn a rural property into a recognizable regional destination.

What the growth could mean for Westtown

The upside for the local economy is easy to see. Seasonal attractions create jobs, even if many are part-time or temporary, and they generate demand for food service, groundskeeping, parking management, entertainment booking and event operations. They also keep visitor spending closer to home, which helps small businesses in Westtown and the surrounding Minisink area.

The tradeoff is that popularity brings friction. More weekend concerts and family events can mean heavier traffic on Pine Hill Road, more noise in the evenings and more pressure on neighbors who value the quiet character of the area. The new bathrooms and commercial kitchen suggest Lyons is preparing for larger crowds, which should help reduce some strain, but a bigger venue also changes how the surrounding roads and fields feel on a busy Saturday night.

There is, however, a local argument for the project that goes beyond entertainment. Lyons has said neighbors thanked him for not turning the property into a large McMansion development, a reminder that in a place like Westtown, preserving open land can be seen as a public good. Echo Fields keeps the acreage in agricultural use while layering on commerce, and that balance is one reason the project has drawn interest.

Why Orange County sees a fit

Echo Fields also lands squarely inside Orange County’s broader economic strategy. The county’s tourism economy generated $1.1 billion in visitor spending in 2022, supported 11,161 jobs and produced $153.8 million in state and local taxes. Those numbers show why local officials keep treating tourism as more than a side industry. It is one of the county’s strongest engines for jobs and tax revenue.

Agritourism fits neatly into that plan because it connects farmland, open space, food production and visitor spending in one place. Orange County adopted New York State’s first Agricultural and Farmland Protection Plan in 1996, then added a Right-to-Farm law in 2006. The county’s agricultural planning work has continued to emphasize economic development strategies for the farm sector, with input from nearly 370 residents and more than 100 farmers helping shape the broader update.

That backdrop matters because Echo Fields is not an isolated experiment. It reflects a regional pattern in which farms are being asked to do more than grow crops. They are also expected to host visitors, preserve open space, support local food systems and add to the county’s tourism footprint. Orange County’s tourism office and planning infrastructure have spent years promoting that mix, and Lyons’ project is one of the clearest examples of how it looks on the ground.

A destination with staying power

What is happening in Westtown is bigger than a pumpkin patch or a summer concert series. Echo Fields is evolving into a year-round business model built on the economics of place, where scenic land, local food and live entertainment all reinforce one another.

If the current pace continues, the farm could become one of the more significant agritourism destinations in Orange County, with benefits that reach beyond its gates. The visitors will bring spending, the events will create seasonal work, and the county will gain another reason to point to agriculture not just as heritage, but as a modern economic asset.