Protester Marcus Leighton, from a group calling itself Bristol Patriots, told BBC West people were fed up with tax and immigration policies, as well as the government, but said the labels given to people with his opinions were unfair.
“We’ve been called Nazis, which is not true. We’re just patriots who love our country,” he said.
“It’s about illegal immigrants, not just immigrants, coming over undocumented, unvetted,” said another protester, who carried a flag on the march reading “not racist, just a worried mum”.
BBC West also heard from members of the much larger counter-demonstration.
One woman said: “We need to welcome these people into our communities properly.
“It’s a very very small percentage, isn’t it, who are asylum seekers, but everything’s sort of blamed on that.”
A second protester added: “There’s masses of resources that could be used if funded correctly, but it doesn’t mean attacking migrants – it means taxing the wealthy.”